The parents of two teenage sisters who were unlawfully killed at the Hillsborough disaster have launched a fresh legal effort to correct the official court record, which still states that their children were unconscious within seconds and died within minutes – despite overwhelming evidence from subsequent inquiries showing this was untrue.
Jenni Hicks and Trevor Hicks, whose teenage daughters Sarah and Victoria were among the 97 Liverpool supporters unlawfully killed at Hillsborough in 1989, are seeking formal recognition that their daughters did not lose consciousness within 30 seconds and die shortly thereafter, as South Yorkshire Police claimed for years, but that they actually suffered for significantly longer.
The “30-second rule” was relied upon in civil litigation following Hillsborough to argue that victims lost consciousness almost immediately and therefore didn’t suffer.
The argument was relied upon in the early 1990s when Jenni Hicks and Hicks brought a test case against South Yorkshire Police for the pain and suffering their daughters endured before their deaths. This was the lead case, intended to help all the victims of the Hillsborough Disaster.
That case was dismissed at every level, including the House of Lords which at the time was the UK’s highest appellate court, on the basis that the girls were assumed to have lost consciousness almost immediately.
Sarah Hicks, 19 (right), and her younger sister Victoria, 15, who were killed in the Hillsborough disaster
Sarah and Victoria, the courts held, had experienced “swift and sudden [deaths] as shown by the medical evidence.”
That stands as a public record – but the Hillsborough Independent Panel (2012) and the fresh Hillsborough inquests (2014 – 2016) have since made clear that this assumption was fundamentally flawed.
Medical and expert evidence demonstrated that many victims remained conscious for up to half an hour and possibly longer. The medical evidence heard by the fresh inquests was that those who died from asphyxia at Hillsborough were likely to have been subjected to pressure that waxed and waned, and they are likely to have suffered physical injuries and fluctuating levels of consciousness over extended periods of time. It is clear this is what happened to both girls.
Victoria, aged 15, was the only female child victim of the crush. Multiple witnesses reported that she was crying and in distress for some time.
Sarah, aged 19, was seen by numerous witnesses who described her as intensely distressed and panicked about the fate of her younger sister. She was even seen desperately trying to hold her sister up in the surging crowd. It is now known that Victoria and Sarah may have survived until 15.45 and 15.39 respectively – an hour after the fatal crush started.
Despite those findings, the original court rulings — and the legal record they created — have never been formally corrected and there is no way, currently, to do so.
Now, supported by an expert legal team, Jenni and Trevor are calling for that record to be set straight and for a ‘Hicks’ Rule’ to be introduced so that people in similar circumstances are able to easily correct the official legal record, where necessary, in future.
Jenni Hicks, from Liverpool, said: “For more than three decades, the law has recorded something about our daughters that we now know simply isn’t true.
“This isn’t about compensation. It’s about truth. It’s about dignity. And it’s about acknowledging what Sarah and Vicki — and so many others — went through that devastating day.
“This is not just about correcting it for our beautiful daughters, it’s for everyone who died that day, and for other families that find themselves facing similar injustices and incorrect legal records.”
Trevor Hicks, from Settle, North Yorkshire said: “The injustice here is not abstract.
“Because the courts accepted the police version of events, we were told our daughters didn’t suffer. We were told the law could do nothing more for them. That was wrong then, and it’s wrong now.”
The legal effort follows an out of court settlement with South Yorkshire Police relating to historic claims brought by the family — a settlement reached without any admission of liability and without any formal public correction of the earlier court findings.
Hillsborough justice campaigners, Trevor and Jenni Hicks, pictured in 2016 as they returned together for the first time to the stadium where their daughters died.
Trevor added: “The money is irrelevant. The key thing we want is the court records corrected.”
Tomorrow (Monday Feb 9), the Hicks family will address a parliamentary event in Westminster, bringing together MPs, peers and legal experts to examine how the law can correct historic judicial records where later evidence has fundamentally overturned the facts on which those decisions were based.
The event, hosted by Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, will take place in Committee Room 1 in the House of Lords, a deliberate and symbolic choice as it’s the same parliamentary location where five Law Lords ruled against Jenni and Trevor in 1992.
The Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police has been invited to attend – and the chair of the Football Association is expected to be present.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, lead counsel for Jenni and Trevor Hicks, says the case raises issues that go far beyond Hillsborough.
“This is about whether the legal system has the courage and the mechanisms to correct itself when later evidence proves earlier assumptions to be false,” she said.
“The findings of the Hillsborough Independent Panel and the fresh inquests are unequivocal. This was not a ‘swift and sudden death’ for Sarah and Victoria — far from it. For an agonising hour they suffered prolonged pain and suffering. And yet the formal legal record remains unchanged. That cannot be right and we are determined to set the record straight. I believe a Hicks’ Rule laid down in law will make it easier for families facing similar battles in future.”
She added: “The legal system already has a system for putting the record straight – a statement in open court, which is used in defamation cases. Regrettably South Yorkshire Police did not agree to this simple step being used here to correct the decades old untruths about how Sarah and Victoria died.”
Nia Williams, Partner at Saunders Law, which represented more than 600 claimants in a group litigation against South Yorkshire Police, added: “Jenni Hicks and Trevor Hicks have been put through hell. They were even forced to pay legal costs and were almost bankrupted in doing so.
“Jenni and Trevor have been forced to hear how their daughters were crushed and suffocated, and to relive that horror every day since. And yet South Yorkshire Police refuses to help get the record corrected. With a Hicks’ Rule, we will get final justice for Jenni and Trevor, and for all the victims of Hillsborough.”
The Hicks family are not prescribing a single route for correction, but say Parliament, the courts and the justice system as a whole must now engage with how historic legal findings can be amended where they no longer reflect the truth.
Chief Constable Lauren Poultney: “It is a source of tremendous regret that the serious errors and mistakes of South Yorkshire Police led to lives being lost and also enormous pain, suffering and distress to both the individuals who lost their lives at Hillsborough, but also to their family and friends.“Under my leadership, South Yorkshire Police will take the steps available to us to support the families in achieving a sense of justice. I acknowledge the huge distress that must have been caused to Mr and Mrs Hicks and others by the court’s findings in 1991 and further to that, I recognise that the lack of an available route to challenge findings has compounded distress. I wish Mr and Mrs Hicks the best for the parliamentary event.”
Further details of the legal steps being considered will be set out at the parliamentary event on Monday.