Hillsborough disaster police officer recalls 'bedlam' on the pitch

A police constable on duty during the Hillsborough disaster has told a court he had to work on his own initiative after responding to a pitch invasion.

Retired South Yorkshire Police officer Robert Ainsworth gave evidence at Preston Crown Court on Thursday at the trial of former police chief superintendent David Duckenfield, 74, and former Sheffield Wednesday club secretary Graham Mackrell, 69.

Mr Ainsworth said he had been on traffic duty on April 15, 1989 ahead of the FA Cup semi-final and was on a break when a superintendent announced officers were being called to the ground.

"He said Operation Support has been called at Hillsborough, there appears to be a pitch invasion taking place," he told the court.

Mr Ainsworth, who said Operation Support meant an immediate call for urgent assistance, told the court he got to the ground between 3.15pm and 3.20pm and entered at the Spion Kop end of the pitch - the opposite end to the Leppings Lane terrace where the fatal crush happened.

He said he was given an order to stand in a cordon facing the North Stand.

He added: "The crowd was really shouting at us, baying at us to move to the other end of the ground. I didn't know what was going off at the time, I still thought it was a pitch invasion.

"I was in the wrong place. I wasn't doing anything good where I was, it was futile standing there, so I decided to move.

"By that time I was working on my own initiative."

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The former police officer said he went towards the Leppings Lane end and saw fans lying on the floor in distress, crying and shouting for help.

He added: "It was chaotic. There were officers all over doing great things, fans doing great things, trying to tend to injured people."

Mr Ainsworth told the court he had no instructions at all until he was later told to join a cordon of officers across the pitch.

He said: "At that stage everyone had lost the plot, I think, on the pitch. It was just bedlam."

The court heard Mr Ainsworth had policed football matches in Sheffield since 1973 when he joined the force.

He said he had worked with Duckenfield before at Sheffield United's ground Bramall Lane, including when Duckenfield was match commander.

He said the former chief superintendent was "very experienced" at policing football matches by April 1989.

Questioned by Benjamin Myers QC, representing Duckenfield, Mr Ainsworth agreed he may not have been a match commander at Bramall Lane but was one of the senior officers in charge.

He said Duckenfield was "very pleasant" to work with and a "very good" policeman.

Duckenfield, of Bournemouth, denies the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 men, women and children who died at the match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

Mackrell, of Stocking Pelham in Hertfordshire, denies breaching a condition of the ground's safety certificate and a health and safety offence.

The trial continues.