The force's chief constable has shown a sense of responsibility too often missing down the decades - but must now deliver on her pledge
Trevor and Jenni Hicks, pictured here attending the Hillsborough inquests in 2015, have been passionate advocates for justice
Trevor and Jenni Hicks, pictured here attending the Hillsborough inquests in 2015, have been passionate advocates for justice(Image: MDM)
View Image
The Hillsborough disaster - or, as it perhaps should be known, the Hillsborough scandal - has cast a shadow over our city for decades.
The central injustice of 97 football fans being unlawfully killed at an event where public and private bodies were responsible for keeping them safe will never go away, despite how important it is that those two words - unlawful killing - were firmly established as the cause by an inquest jury in 2016.
But within that wider disgrace, borne to this day by the establishment and by those who helped propagate the lies told in the disaster's aftermath, there are countless other injustices, inaccuracies and smears which remain to be unpicked and corrected.
One of those is the record of how - and, crucially, when - Sarah and Victoria Hicks died.
The teenagers' parents, Trevor and Jenni, have fought a long battle to have the record corrected, after South Yorkshire Police claimed they died almost immediately. That claim has been widely discredited - and it's hard to believe that, nearly 37 years on, it remains on the official record.
So today's promise from current South Yorkshire Police chief constable Lauren Poultney that it will be corrected is to be welcomed. It is, as Trevor Hicks says, a huge step forward.
It is right that we recognise today's chief constable is not directly responsible for what happened on April 15, 1989 or the aftermath of the tragedy. She is, however, taking responsibility - something too few in public life seem able or willing to do, and something sorely missed in official responses to Hillsborough down the years. Her commitment today is to be welcomed.
However, so often the families have been let down. So often promises have not been kept and pledges have not been honoured.
Trevor and Jenni have been among the most recognisable, passionate and articulate voices in the fight for justice in all its forms. That justice has too often been delayed, and therefore denied. This commitment can do little about that delay - but it can, and must, be kept.