According to the adage that time is a great healer, the gaping wounds which opened up on Merseyside and beyond on April 15, 1989 should have long since mended.
But in 11 days’ time the 20th anniversary of Hillsborough will arrive and hearts will weigh just as heavy as they did in the hours, days, weeks and months which followed British football’s biggest ever disaster.
Even the passing of two decades – an entire generation – has failed to ease much of the pain caused by the tragic and unnecessary deaths of 96 men, women and children who went to a football match and never came back.
“It’s time to move on” is a phrase which is being uttered with greater monotony with every passing year but this week, the plight of one courageous mother highlighted exactly why moving on is not yet an option and nor should it be.
Anne Williams’ old life ended when her 15-year-old son Kevin became one of the victims of the death trap that was the Leppings Lane end.
From that point on, Anne has devoted almost every waking moment to the ongoing fight for justice, in particular her own personal battle to find out how Kevin was killed and for it to be proven in a court of law.
Her relentless search for the truth eventually led to new evidence being discovered which appeared to prove that Kevin had been alive at least 45 minutes after the 3.15pm cut-off point imposed by the coroner who investigated the Hillsborough tragedy.
It wasn’t just any old evidence either. It came from two serving police officers who had found that Kevin still had a pulse at 4pm.
Furthermore, a doctor by the name of Ed Walker would later tell the British Medical Journal that the 3.15pm cut-off time was clearly bogus because he and other medical professionals had been trying to resuscitate critically injured fans long after that time.
“It is also a matter of public record that some victims who died in hospital did not die until well after 3.15pm,” said Dr Walker.
“I personally, along with many other members of medical staff, was attempting resuscitation on those who subsequently died, but were very much alive, well after 3.15pm. This is quite simply a matter of fact.”
Unfortunately, despite having such powerful evidence at hand Anne’s campaign for her son to be given the inquest she feels he was denied is yet to bear fruit.
Door after door has been slammed in her face as the British justice system has again proved itself unworthy of its name.
Anne had hoped that where her own country had failed her, Europe could unlock the door to justice but this week such aspirations came to nothing when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that her case was inadmissible because too much time had elapsed between the initial incident and evidence being presented to them.
Like packets of crisps and tins of soup, justice, apparently, has a sell-by date. The kick to Anne’s teeth could not have been any harder had a bewigged European judge pulled back his right foot and planted it squarely in her mouth with the ferocity of a Steven Gerrard volley.
Her reaction? “A while ago, I was going to stop fighting but now I’ve decided to carry on.” If ever a few short words summed up a mother’s enduring love for her son it is these.
Because this particular mother is not going to rest until a court of law finally accepts that Kevin Williams died after 3.15pm on Saturday April 15, 1989.
And she is certainly not going to “move on” until there is a full legal recognition that Kevin’s right to life was taken away by the failure of the emergency services on that terrible day.
From somewhere, she has summoned up the courage and the fortitude to continue her fight and for this alone she is exactly the kind of woman that any son would be proud to call “mum”.
Anne Williams is a hero. For what she has gone through and for what she continues to put herself through in the pursuit of justice there can be no other description.
Unfortunately, even heroes cannot always triumph on their own and Anne’s admission on her Hope for Hillsborough page on Facebook that she cannot keep up the fight alone will hopefully result in her being given the kind of support which she so richly deserves.
The Hillsborough disaster did not begin and end on April 15, 1989. It is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago and only when this lone woman’s battle for justice for her son is rewarded will the remaining wounds finally begin to heal.
But in 11 days’ time the 20th anniversary of Hillsborough will arrive and hearts will weigh just as heavy as they did in the hours, days, weeks and months which followed British football’s biggest ever disaster.
Even the passing of two decades – an entire generation – has failed to ease much of the pain caused by the tragic and unnecessary deaths of 96 men, women and children who went to a football match and never came back.
“It’s time to move on” is a phrase which is being uttered with greater monotony with every passing year but this week, the plight of one courageous mother highlighted exactly why moving on is not yet an option and nor should it be.
Anne Williams’ old life ended when her 15-year-old son Kevin became one of the victims of the death trap that was the Leppings Lane end.
From that point on, Anne has devoted almost every waking moment to the ongoing fight for justice, in particular her own personal battle to find out how Kevin was killed and for it to be proven in a court of law.
Her relentless search for the truth eventually led to new evidence being discovered which appeared to prove that Kevin had been alive at least 45 minutes after the 3.15pm cut-off point imposed by the coroner who investigated the Hillsborough tragedy.
It wasn’t just any old evidence either. It came from two serving police officers who had found that Kevin still had a pulse at 4pm.
Furthermore, a doctor by the name of Ed Walker would later tell the British Medical Journal that the 3.15pm cut-off time was clearly bogus because he and other medical professionals had been trying to resuscitate critically injured fans long after that time.
“It is also a matter of public record that some victims who died in hospital did not die until well after 3.15pm,” said Dr Walker.
“I personally, along with many other members of medical staff, was attempting resuscitation on those who subsequently died, but were very much alive, well after 3.15pm. This is quite simply a matter of fact.”
Unfortunately, despite having such powerful evidence at hand Anne’s campaign for her son to be given the inquest she feels he was denied is yet to bear fruit.
Door after door has been slammed in her face as the British justice system has again proved itself unworthy of its name.
Anne had hoped that where her own country had failed her, Europe could unlock the door to justice but this week such aspirations came to nothing when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that her case was inadmissible because too much time had elapsed between the initial incident and evidence being presented to them.
Like packets of crisps and tins of soup, justice, apparently, has a sell-by date. The kick to Anne’s teeth could not have been any harder had a bewigged European judge pulled back his right foot and planted it squarely in her mouth with the ferocity of a Steven Gerrard volley.
Her reaction? “A while ago, I was going to stop fighting but now I’ve decided to carry on.” If ever a few short words summed up a mother’s enduring love for her son it is these.
Because this particular mother is not going to rest until a court of law finally accepts that Kevin Williams died after 3.15pm on Saturday April 15, 1989.
And she is certainly not going to “move on” until there is a full legal recognition that Kevin’s right to life was taken away by the failure of the emergency services on that terrible day.
From somewhere, she has summoned up the courage and the fortitude to continue her fight and for this alone she is exactly the kind of woman that any son would be proud to call “mum”.
Anne Williams is a hero. For what she has gone through and for what she continues to put herself through in the pursuit of justice there can be no other description.
Unfortunately, even heroes cannot always triumph on their own and Anne’s admission on her Hope for Hillsborough page on Facebook that she cannot keep up the fight alone will hopefully result in her being given the kind of support which she so richly deserves.
The Hillsborough disaster did not begin and end on April 15, 1989. It is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago and only when this lone woman’s battle for justice for her son is rewarded will the remaining wounds finally begin to heal.
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