WIREDGOV

A number of key decisions relating to the Hillsborough investigations will be announced in the next few weeks. 

The application for a voluntary bill of indictment to allow a prosecution to proceed against former Ch Supt David Duckenfield will be heard at Preston Combined Court next week on Monday 26 February and Tuesday 27 February. At this stage, it is not known whether the Judge, Sir Peter Openshaw DL, will make his ruling when the hearings conclude on Tuesday or in the days or weeks afterwards. This is the Judge’s decision and he will provide guidance on this at the hearings. 

The Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) review of a West Midlands Police (WMP) evidence file relating to two suspects  is almost complete. The CPS expects to announce charging decisions relating to these individuals within the next three weeks. 

We referred around 61,000 pages of evidence to the CPS in January 2017. Further investigative work was required on the file, resulting in an additional 12,000 pages of evidence being submitted at the end of May 2017.  As a result, it was not possible for the CPS to make charging decisions on the WMP matters at the same time as those announced in June last year. Since then extensive work has been ongoing to review this evidence.

We will also provide the outcome of our evidence review relating to three former South Yorkshire Police officers who are suspects but have not been previously referred to the CPS. This review will include whether or not a CPS referral will now be made so that criminal charges can be formally considered.

At this stage, it is expected that both WMP charging decisions and the evidence review in relation to the SYP officers will be communicated together.

It should be noted that criminal proceedings are live and the defendants have a right to a fair trial.  It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.