Hillsborough inquests - November 11

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 Liverpool Echo - November 11

A Liverpool FC fan told the Hillsborough inquests he saw a victim make an “effort to breathe” on the terrace after the crush.

The court, in Birchwood Park, Warrington, heard about Kirkby dad-of-three Henry Burke, 47, as the jury heard the final evidence about the individual movements of the 96.

Mr Burke had travelled to the semi-final on April 15, 1989, with his brother-in-law James Murphy and other friends, including James Swain.

Mr Swain said he and Henry had separated from the rest of the group once in Sheffield to go to the coach park, where they bought two tickets for the terraces.

But he lost sight of Henry outside the ground.

Ian Johnson, a Liverpool supporter who was in pen three of the Leppings Lane terraces, told the court he had seen a man he later identified as Henry after the crush.

In a statement he said: “You could see his head and shoulders out of the bodies. His head was back.

“He pulled his head forward in an effort to breathe.”

He said Henry’s face looked white at first but began to change colour as he watched him.

He said: “His face was changing colour constantly for the amount of time I did have visibility of him.

“It went, you know, red, pink. I can remember him being sick as well and eventually going sort of bluish, purple.”

Mr Johnson said he thought Henry had been in front of him for 10 to 15 minutes but said it felt “like a lifetime”.

He told the court: “After a while he sort of collapsed, well collapsed or slid down, and I lost visibility of him after a while.”

He said: “He just seemed to be staring at me.

“It was like one of those pictures where the eyes are always following you.

“I just remember him constantly staring, almost staring through me.”

The court was shown photos of Henry lying on the pitch, behind the Leppings Lane goal, at 3.26pm.

James Grant, who was a PC in 1989, described removing Henry from the pen and placing him on a hoarding, but could not recall placing him behind the goal.

He could not remember making an assessment of Henry as he moved him onto the hoarding.

He said: “I believed him to be already dead.”

Footage from 3.35pm showed him helping to carry the hoarding with Henry on across the pitch.

The court heard a section of that footage was used in a compilation presented to MPs at the House of Commons by Norman Bettison, who was then a chief inspector in South Yorkshire Police but went on to become chief constable of Merseyside.

The inquests have previously heard that the video presentation was given ahead of a Parliamentary debate on the findings of the Taylor inquiry into the disaster.

Mr Grant said after taking Henry to the gymnasium he left to assist other casualties but later returned to Henry and remained with him until another officer took over.

Henry was confirmed dead by Dr Matthew Bull at 4pm.

Mr Murphy and Mr Swain, who had tried to find Henry after the match was cancelled, identified his body in the early hours of the following morning.

A nurse who helped a 17-year-old at Hillsborough was tracked down by a witness appeal more than 26 years after the disaster.

The inquests into the 96 deaths heard investigators from Operation Resolve had managed to identify more footage, photos and witness evidence relating to St Helens teenager Stephen O’Neill - who the inquests had heard evidence about in June.

Stephen, whose uncle David Hawley, 39, also died in the disaster, was shown on footage being treated on the pitch at 3.26pm.

Nottingham Forest fan and nurse Judith Black told the court she had been sitting in the South Stand and had gone onto the pitch to help after seeing casualties carried past on hoardings.

But she said she had only given a statement about the day of the disaster last month, after being identified on a witness appeal.

She said she came across a group of people treating a casualty, believed to be Stephen, on the pitch and had accompanied him in an ambulance to hospital.

She said: “There was somebody that was helping me give treatment to the casualty and I believe I was doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”

Mrs Black said she had shown the man helping her how to do chest compressions because he was not trained.

She was in tears as she told the court: “He told me he was just a Nottingham Forest supporter who had felt the need to come down to the pitch and help out.”

Mrs Black said the ambulance was “very crowded” - with two other casualties and two people treating each of them - but they did CPR to the best of their ability.

The court heard Tony Edwards, one of the ambulance crew, had his attention drawn to the casualty believed to be Stephen as the ambulance drove across the pitch.

Counsel to the inquests Matthew Hill said: “Mr Edwards said that, as his ambulance reached the goal area at the Leppings Lane end of the pitch, it was approached by a woman who shouted through the open window that she had resuscitated a casualty.”

But he said when he saw the teenager he doubted whether he had been revived because he looked blue.

The court heard Stephen was confirmed dead at hospital and later taken back to the gymnasium at the ground, where he was identified by Paul Owens, who had travelled with him to the game.