Hillsborough inquests - October 1

The report below - and the witness testimony contained within it - does not necessarily reflect the views of Liverpool FC. Please be aware that the reports on these pages will contain evidence about the day of the disaster which may be distressing.

To view archive reports from each day of the inquest hearings, click here.

Courtesy of the BBC - October 1

A fan caught up in the crush at Hillsborough has spoken of seeing a 15-year-old boy fall back into the crowd with "no life in him".

Kenneth Cooper was on the terraces when he believed he saw Liverpool supporter Kevin Williams. "I just noticed his eyes. I got no response."

Kevin's mother Anne led the campaign for fresh inquests but died months after they were ordered in 2012.

His family said it was "heartbreaking" to be at the inquests without her.

Ninety-six fans were fatally injured during the Liverpool versus Nottingham Forest FA Cup semi-final held in Sheffield on 15 April 1989.

Kevin, who was "mad about Liverpool Football Club", had travelled from his home in Formby, Merseyside.

CCTV shown to jurors captured Kevin in the pen celebrating the team's line-up announcement.

Mr Cooper said that when the crowd eased back he grabbed the railing and pulled himself up and as he turned he believed he saw Kevin.

"The image I will never forget is the one of the boy behind me falling backwards.

"His face was near purple, eyes bulging out of his head and there was no life in him and I believed, I'm not a medical professional, but I believe he had already died by then.

"Because the pressure eased, the bodies just fell back. I just remember this body falling back."

Pete Weatherby QC, representing the Williams family, questioned whether the boy Mr Cooper identified was Kevin.

Mr Cooper said that Liverpool fan was Kevin Williams.

Another supporter, Andrew Regan, said Kevin had been "crushed up" behind his left shoulder and believed he was semi-conscious.

He said: "All I remember is I said 'come on, try and keep your head up'. I just noticed his eyes. I got no response."

Earlier, CCTV showed Kevin and his friend Andrew Duncan, 16, who both had standing tickets for the Leppings Lane end of the ground, going through the turnstile at 12:58 BST.

Mr Duncan said they went to pen three behind the goal because it "seemed to be a better view" and "we had plenty of room at the time we picked out".

He did not see his friend again after they were separated during the surge when the match kicked off, the inquests heard.

He previously said he heard Kevin say: "It's a bit packed isn't it?"

Kevin's mother became a high profile campaigner but died in April 2013 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Speaking before the hearing, her brother Danny Gordon said: "It is heartbreaking for us today to be here without Anne and she can't be here for our Kev after all the work she has done over the years.

"She didn't want us to walk away from it so we had to carry on where she left off, but she had done all the work anyway - we are only representing her really."

Earlier the inquests heard about the final moments of another of the victims, 18-year-old Jonathon Owens.

Hillsborough disaster casualties arrived "in huge numbers and very, very quickly", a nurse who gave fans first aid on the pitch said.

Nobody was available to "triage" the injured to prioritise treatment, Mandy Harris told the new inquests.

A fan said he was "convinced" Jonathon was alive after the terrace crush but a police officer said he was "lifeless".

Mr Owens, a clerical assistant from Chester, had driven to the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989 with friends.

They included Peter Burkett, 24, who also died.

Mrs Harris was a registered nurse who had gone to watch the match from the North Stand.

In footage timed after 15:35, she was seen treating casualties in front of the Spion Kop opposite to the Leppings Lane terraces where the fatal crush had taken place.

She said: "People were being carried down the pitch in huge numbers and very, very quickly. There was nobody there to triage what was happening and there was nobody there to give you any handover.

"The urgency was to get them away, take them to the other end of the pitch, hope that there was somebody there that could help and then run back for more.

"So the people that were arriving, you had no sense of when they had actually stopped breathing... and it was not possible to gauge."

She agreed with Mark George QC, representing Mr Owens' family, that she was seen giving him "vigorous" chest compressions.

Mrs Harris said she spoke to a man giving first aid to a casualty, likely to have been Mr Owens, because he was doing it "incorrectly".

He "kept arguing with her" and "a lot of time was wasted", she said.

The jury also heard from Charles Daniels, a Liverpool fan who survived the crush and helped carry Mr Owens from the Leppings Lane end.

Mr Owens was seen inside pen three at that end of the stadium.

Mr Daniels said: "In my head now, I can't remember if Jonathon was alive or it was our hope that he was alive.

"All I can remember now is just an impression that to me he appeared to be alive. I can't remember anything more.

"Looking back over that time, whether I thought his chest was moving or he was making a sound, I really just can't remember.

"I was convinced at the time that Jonathon was still alive, yes."

Mr Daniels said he watched as a male police officer gave Jonathon mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

That lasted for "about a minute", after which the officer "stopped or he had made a conclusion that Jonathon had actually died", Mr Daniels said.

He added: "I had no first aid qualification. I just felt completely inadequate and useless at that moment.

"I just wish that I could have done more."

A police officer who also helped to carry Mr Owens said he was "definitely motionless and lifeless" when he saw him.

The inquests in Warrington, Cheshire, continue.