A damning new report has laid bare the "bare-faced arrogance and rank complacency" of senior police officers involved in the cover-up following the Hillsborough disaster, with former chief inspector Sir Norman Bettison singled out for particularly severe criticism.
The Unfolding of a Cover-Up
On Tuesday, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) published its long-awaited findings, detailing a systematic effort to shift blame onto Liverpool fans after the 1989 tragedy that claimed 97 lives. The report exposes a culture of "petty jealousies" within South Yorkshire Police's top brass and reveals how subordinates were ordered to comb through criminal records and photograph rubbish bins in a vile attempt to tarnish the reputations of the deceased.
The 400-page summary dedicates an entire section to Sir Norman Bettison, describing actions that give "new meaning to the word 'despicable'". The report confirms Bettison was deeply involved in the force's "counter-attack" strategy. In November 1989, he gave an aggressively anti-Liverpool video presentation to influential Tory MP Michael Shersby and later disseminated the same false narrative to other parliamentarians in Westminster.
Bettison's Deceit and Career Advancement
The IOPC secured the video Bettison showed MPs, complete with his voiceover. In it, he falsely claimed that Liverpool supporters forced open a gate, precipitating the crush, and that police managed the crowd well. The watchdog's exhaustive work also highlights that a "special kind of bastard" would alcohol-test corpses, including children, to bend the story in the police's favour. Bettison would have known of this.
Despite this, Bettison's career prospered. When he applied for the role of Merseyside Chief Constable in 1998, an external assessor misleadingly told the interview panel he had been a "member of a small inquiry team" on Hillsborough. Most panel members did not read the relevant report, and no one questioned him in detail about the disaster. He was hired unanimously.
Only when the Liverpool Daily Post ran a front-page story did Bettison face scrutiny, prompting him to obfuscate and conceal, repeatedly describing his role as "peripheral". The IOPC states a misconduct panel could reasonably conclude he "deliberately downplayed his role".
Lasting Immunity and Absence of Contrition
Even after the 2012 Hillsborough Independent Review exposed South Yorkshire Police's catastrophic failures, Bettison, then Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, issued a press release falsely asserting he had never "besmirched" fans. The outcry forced his resignation. Although the Crown Prosecution Service later announced he would face trial for misconduct in public office, the case was dropped.
The IOPC states that if Bettison were a serving officer today, he would face a gross misconduct case. However, he retired under old laws that grant him immunity from disciplinary proceedings. He retains his knighthood, awarded in 2006, his Queen's Police Medal, and a police pension estimated at £90,000 a year. He has shown no apology or contrition.
In response to the report, Liverpool MP Ian Byrne has demanded the withdrawal of Bettison's knighthood. Meanwhile, the South Yorkshire Police Federation chairman controversially labelled the 12-year investigation "opinion dressed up as fact", a statement the IOPC report undermines by citing the federation's own 1989 representative admitting to spreading false stories about fans to the media.
