Hillsborough inquests - May 19

The Hillsborough inquests commenced on March 31, 2014 and are the subject of reporting restrictions that have been imposed by the Attorney General's office. Liverpool Football Club is respectful of these restrictions and will therefore only be making available updates from other media channels for the duration of the inquest.

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 - May 19

The best friend of a schoolboy who died after the 1989 Hillsborough disaster has described "trying to beg" a police officer for help after the crush began.

The new inquests have been focusing on the death of 14-year-old Lee Nicol.

Austin Grimmant, a fellow Liverpool fan who was standing next to him, told the jury he thought a police officer found that Lee was breathing when he checked him on the Leppings Lane terrace.

Lee, who died two days later, was one of 96 people to suffer fatal injuries.

They were caught up in a crush on the terraces at the Liverpool v Nottingham Forest FA Cup semi-final in Sheffield on 15 April 1989.

The jury heard how Lee arrived on the terraces between 13:00 BST and 13:30 ahead of the 15:00 kick-off.

He and Mr Grimmant, then a schoolboy, were in the front corner of pen three, by a fence that separated it from pen two.

Mr Grimmant said that after players came on the pitch to warm up there was a surge in the crowd.

He said: "It pushed us against the fence, it kind of went on longer than you would like.

"I remember looking at Lee and we thought it were a little bit naughty.

"It eased off so we just thought that it was a normal thing."

Mr Grimmant said Lee then moved back on to a step behind him and was turned side-on in the pen.

Speaking through tears, the witness described how Lee was pushed into his chest by a much stronger surge.

He said Lee told him he was struggling to breathe while a man behind him was screaming.

Mr Grimmant said as soon as the second surge came and Lee became distressed he tried to get the attention of a police officer on the pitch side.

"I was basically trying to beg him to do something because you knew something was seriously wrong.

"He just told people to move back."

Mr Grimmant said Lee went out of his sight.

"I don't know what time it was, but people started telling me and they realised Lee was there."

He said Lee was wriggling on the floor but stopped moving and other fans were being pushed around him in the crush.

Another friend of Lee's, Alan Trees, was also in pen three. He told the jury he saw "quite a big man on top of Lee" who was "distressed" and "trying to get out himself, but was, sort of, directly on top of Lee".

Mr Grimmant was helped into pen two and said from there he saw Lee was "crouched on the floor".

He added: "Everybody was talking about him, saying 'we have just got to get to this boy'."

He told the court he remembers a police officer was able to find Lee was breathing by reaching through the fence separating the pens.

At 15:11, five minutes after the match was stopped, supporters passed Lee over the fence to police officers in pen two.

Keith Marsh, a constable on duty at the match, helped carry Lee. He and a colleague took him away from the Leppings Lane end and placed him on the side of the pitch, near the South Stand.

Mr Marsh said Lee "seemed unconscious" and "quite obviously he was in need of medical treatment".

Mr Marsh and a colleague began trying to resuscitate him and at one point believes Lee "responded to the resuscitation" and was "possibly alive".

Dr Michael Hutson, an off-duty doctor who went to the match with his family, also tried to resuscitate Lee.

He said the 14-year-old had "no spontaneous breathing" and "no pulse" when he was with him.

The jury also saw footage of Lee being wheeled on a stretcher across the pitch towards an ambulance at around 15:20.

The inquests in Warrington, Cheshire, continue.