Hillsborough inquests - December 8

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 - December 8

A medical expert told the Hillsborough inquests it was "plausible" that teenager Kevin Williams was alive on the pitch after 3.30pm.

But, intensive care expert Dr Jasmeet Soar said there was no medical explanation for the Formby 15-year-old saying "mum" and opening his eyes in the gymnasium.

The inquests into the 96 deaths heard from medical experts and pathologists about Kevin, whose mum Anne had campaigned for new inquests but died before the hearings started.

Dr Soar said Kevin could be alive in photos showing him on the terrace between 3.05pm and 3.06pm.

But he said he appeared deeply unconscious when he was seen on footage being carried from the pen at 3.28pm.

He said: "Kevin doesn't appear to have any body tone or muscle tone when he is removed from the pen and dragged onto the pitch."

The court was shown some footage of police officer Michael Craighill thumping Kevin's chest twice, in an effort to restart his heart.

Dr Soar said thumping the chest was a technique which rarely worked.

He said the evidence was not clear about whether Kevin had any vital signs at the time.

The court heard off-duty Merseyside police officer Derek Bruder had described seeing Kevin's head twitch twice as he lay on the pitch at the Kop end of the ground.

He, who was pictured on the pitch with Kevin at 3.32pm, also said he felt a faint pulse in his neck, before he started CPR with St John Ambulance volunteer John Towler.

Dr Soar said: "Twitches of the head to me imply movement, and to have any movement, that does imply there is some blood flow to the brain.

"Whether that is because the heart has just recently stopped, about to stop or there's a very weak heartbeat or the fact there's been recent CPR and the brain is now running out of oxygen, it is difficult to say.

"But it is possibly a sign of life."

He said Kevin may have had a weak heartbeat or Mr Bruder may have been mistaken, as pulse checks were not always reliable.

Dr Soar said photos of Mr Bruder giving mouth-to-mouth to Kevin showed "text book, exemplary" treatment.

He said: "From that sequence of photos, it does appear that he knew what he was doing in terms of giving mouth-to-mouth breaths."

Pete Weatherby QC, representing Kevin's family, said: "Putting it together, here we have not a medic, but an off-duty emergency services person, viewing the scene and identifying three separate signs of life."

He added: "You, looking at this from a medical perspective, would put some store in those as being signs of life?"

Dr Soar said: "Yes I would say that was plausible."

Christina Lambert QC, counsel to the inquests, asked if Kevin might have gone into cardiac arrest while being given CPR by Mr Towler and Mr Bruder.

Dr Soar said: "He could have gone in when the CPR started, so at the time those twitches were seen, and I'm confident that at the end - by the time they finished their 10 to 15 minutes of CPR - there are no signs of life reported by three individuals, so yes, he was in cardiac arrest."

But he said he didn't think it was medically plausible for Kevin to have opened his eyes after being carried to the gymnasium and said "mum", as described by special constable Debra Martin.

He said: "We don't think it is plausible to be deeply unconscious for that duration and then to restore an adequate level of breathing and oxygen level and blood pressure for the brain to then regain adequate consciousness, to then say a single word and then for that process to reverse again.

"So we don't have a medical explanation for that."

He said he believed Kevin was in cardiac arrest when he was carried into the gym and he didn't think it was plausible that Ms Martin found a pulse.

He told the court that the timeframe for Kevin's death was between 3.05pm and 3.40pm-3.45pm.

Pathologists Dr Nat Cary and Dr Nigel Cooper said Kevin's post-mortem report showed external and internal injuries to his neck.

Dr Cary said: "Something has compressed the neck and it has caused injury on the outside and it has also caused injury on the inside."

They gave the cause of death as compression asphyxia.

Dr Cooper said: "There may well have been a contribution because of pressure on the neck, but compression asphyxia covers it."

A 20-year-old gardener who died at Hillsborough may still have been alive after a resuscitation attempt stopped, the inquests heard.

The court heard Stephen Copoc, from Speke, appeared alive on photos taken of the crowd on the terrace at 3.03pm.

He was carried out of the pen and given CPR on the pitch by police officers Robert Crookes and Andrew West.

Mr Crookes, who had said he saw Stephen's chest rising during CPR, said he couldn't remember if they had checked for a pulse before stopping CPR but thought they would have.

Intensive care expert Dr Jasmeet Soar said he would expect to see a casualty's chest rise while they were being given mouth-to-mouth.

He said Stephen was likely to have been unconscious when he was given CPR.

He said: "I think it is most likely that he wasn't breathing and possibly didn't have a pulse, but we don't have any AV evidence, we don't have any good evidence of a formal verification of the absence of signs of life at the end of that period of CPR.

"So I wouldn't be absolutely certain that at the end he was in cardiorespiratory arrest.

"Although that would be my highest probability of his likely condition."

A post-mortem report for Stephen showed bruises to his arms which were consistent with him being gripped while alive.

Forensic pathologist Dr Nat Cary said: "Obviously the presence of bruising implies that the circulation is still functioning, but there may have been gripping during the course of the crush, there may have been gripping during recovery from the pen and we are not able to distinguish between those two possibilities."

The court heard Stephen was likely to have died sometime between 3.03pm and 4.05pm from compression asphyxia.