The report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which was made public on Wednesday by Prime Minister David Cameron, sheds serious doubt upon the 1991 inquest.
Among the new report's findings are that 164 witness statements were amended, 116 explicitly removing negative comments about the policing operation. The report says that police and emergency services made "strenuous attempts" to deflect the blame for the disaster on to the fans.
"DESPICABLE UNTRUTHS"
The independent panel's review found:
* Some authorities made "strenuous attempts" to create a "completely unjust" account of events by switching the blame to the fans
* The safety of the crowds at Hillsborough had been "compromised at every level"
* "Up to 41 people had the potential to survive" after 3.15pm - the original inquest's cut-off time for survival. Of the 96 victims, 28 had no "obstruction of blood circulation" and there was "separate evidence that, in 31, the heart and lungs had continued to function after the crush"
* "Despicable untruths" about the behaviour of fans were part of police efforts "to develop and publicise a version of events that focused on allegations of drunkenness, ticketlessness and violence"
* Officers carried out police national computer checks on victims in an attempt "to impugn the reputations of the deceased"
* Blood-alcohol tests were carried out on each victim, even the under-aged – an "exceptional" decision for which "the panel finds no rationale"
The Prime Minister has said he is "profoundly sorry" for what he called the double injustice of the Hillsborough disaster. He added that the report showed the Liverpool fans "were not the cause of the disaster.
"There is a trail of new documents, which show the extent to which the safety of the crowd at Hillsborough was 'compromised at every level'."
