A police officer from Hillsborough admitted that he had directly caused the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans back in 1989.

Soccer was in the air and the Liverpool FA Cup semi-final was underway against Nottingham that day. Fans poured in by the buckets expecting to see a game, but what they saw was tragedy. During an inquest into the day's events, police officer David Duckenfield admitted that his failure to close a tunnel was the direct cause of almost 100 fans at the Hillsborough disaster.

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Duckenfield said that he "froze" on that day when confronted with the throng of fans. He also added that he was not familiar with the geography of the soccer stadium.

Paul Greaney QC said though that a child of "average intelligence" would have been able to realize that opening the gate would decongest the crowd. His state of mind during the inquest was not always the picture of clarity and assurance.

Earlier, he had pleaded that he did not know what was going on in his mind. He merely said that his freezing could have been a distinct possibility that day.

However, with pressure from Greaney, he was able to wrangle out Duckenfield's confession.

Greaney made Duckenfield admit that he did freeze, that people died in the gates to his negligence, that if he acted that many people would not have died, and that he failed to recognize the things needed to be done in order to save the many fans.

The stampedes happened as fans kept coming in through the central gate of the stadium. As people poured in, the area that connected to the central pens was closed.

With more people coming in, the masses started to swell until the regrettable incident happened.

Since then, Duckenfield said that he has suffered some post-traumatic stress due to his inexperience in handling the matter that ultimately led to a number of deaths. 

TagsHillsborough, Hillsborough police, Stampede