Crush at Hillsborough stadium 8 years before disaster

The Hillsborough inquests have heard how there was crushing at the Sheffield Wednesday ground at another FA Cup semi-final eight years before the 1989 disaster.

The jury heard there was a crush at the west end of the ground on the Leppings Lane terrace four or five minutes into the match between Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Det Supt Neil Malkin from Operation Resolve, the criminal investigation into the 1989 disaster, was back in the witness stand to give further uncontroversial evidence.

The court was told how the 1981 crush may have been associated with a goal scored by Tottenham "which had caused the crowd to surge."

Unlike the crush on 15th April 1989, it is likely the focus of the crush in 1981 was at a "rather different position in the terrace... rather a bit closer to the police control box in the south west corner".

Christina Lambert QC, counsel for the inquests, said: "The fans involved in the crush were moved out of the terrace and around the perimeter fence and into different parts of the stadium."

38 people were injured, including some two who had broken arms and one with a broken leg.

The court heard the police and the Football Association were amongst those who considered what had caused congestion at the turnstiles before the 1981 game and the rush itself.

Amongst the theories was the late arrival of fans, possibly attributable to a motorway accident, and the need to transfer to the Leppings Lane end some Tottenham fans who had obtained tickets to the Kop.

They also discussed the admission of fans via turnstiles without tickets being checked and an apparent excess of the stipulated capacity of 335 fans.

Wider discussion was reflected in a police briefing, the jury heard.

Ms Lambert said: "One of the matters that was raised, was it not, was whether or not the stated capacity on the safety certificate for the west terrace of 10,000… was in fact too high."

Det Supt Malkin replied: "There was that consideration yes."

The jury heard that after the event, police considered the construction of divisions within the Leppings Lane terrace and a "rethink of reconfiguration of the turnstiles at the Leppings Lane end for certain parts of the terrace."