The day the world learned the truth
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 is one of the most significant days in the history of Liverpool Football Club.
It was a day that established once and for all what so many had known for so many years - that Liverpool fans were not to blame for what happened at the Hillsborough disaster on April 15, 1989.
It was a day that confirmed that more could have been done to help the injured and dying, and that witness statements had been altered and changed in order to distort the truth.
It was a day that began to right some of the atrocious wrongs after nearly a quarter of a century of misinformation.
It took 23 years, four months and 28 days to arrive, but September 12, 2012, shattered the myths and lies about the Hillsborough disaster once and for all.
At the start of the momentous day, families of those lost at the disaster, together with the survivors, gathered outside the towering Anglican Cathedral in the heart of Liverpool's city centre.
Slowly, they made their way inside, where they would be presented with the findings of the Hillsborough Independent Panel's report.
This is what they were told: that documents disclosed to the panel had endorsed Lord Justice Taylor's key finding in 1994, that the main reason for the Hillsborough disaster was a 'failure in police control'.
The documents had also revealed multiple failures within organisations that compromised crowd safety and that Liverpool fans neither caused nor contributed to the deaths of 96 men, women and children.
Introducing the report to the Hillsborough families, Bishop James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool and Chair of the Panel, said: "For nearly a quarter of a century the families of the 96 and the survivors of Hillsborough have nursed an open wound waiting for answers to unresolved questions.
"It has been a frustrating and painful experience adding to their grief. In spite of all the investigations they have sensed that their search for truth and justice has been thwarted and that no-one has been held accountable.
"The documents disclosed to and analysed by the Panel show that the tragedy should never have happened. There were clear operational failures in response to the disaster and in its aftermath there were strenuous attempts to deflect the blame onto the fans."
Set up in January 2010, the remit of the Panel was to ensure that the families and the wider public received the maximum possible disclosure of all relevant information relating to the context, circumstances and aftermath of the tragedy.
The Hillsborough Independent Panel reviewed more than 450,000 documents from 85 different contributors, including government departments, police, the coroner and emergency services.
Its report told how up to 41 lives could have been saved if the emergency services' response had been adequate, while police had altered 164 statements - a number which has since risen due to evidence thrown up by further investigations.
Once the ground-breaking report was presented to the families and survivors, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, delivered a speech on its contents before the House of Commons.
The Prime Minister said: "What happened that day and since was wrong. It was wrong for the responsible authorities, who knew Hillsborough did not meet minimum safety standards and yet still allowed the match to go ahead.
"It was wrong that the families have had to wait for so long and fight so hard just to get to the truth. It was quite profoundly wrong that the police changed the records of what happened and tried to blame the fans.
"Mr Speaker, with the weight of the new evidence in the report, it is right for me today, as Prime Minister, to make a proper apology to the families of the 96 for all they have suffered over the past 23 years."
Attention shifted from Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral across the city centre to St George's Plateau, where a special vigil was held.
Anne Williams, of Hope for Hillsborough (For Justice), took to the podium and said: "Justice - what a lovely word. I've hated it for 23 years.
"We've been bounced off one wall to another by the British legal system - but now, hopefully, we can get justice for the 96."
The Hillsborough Justice Campaign's Sheila Coleman held a copy of the Panel's report up for the crowd to view and said: "I want you to see this because it's here today because of you and what you have done."
Then, Margaret Aspinall, chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, took to the stage and delivered a message to the thousands who had gathered in the plateau.
"I want to thank you all - without all of you, we wouldn't have got to where we are," she said. "Today was a very emotional day for all the families and everybody who was there.
"To learn that 41 of our loved ones could have been saved was horrendous to hear - and that's why the fight will go on for justice for them.
"But today, the achievement is about all our fans and survivors. I want them to go home to their beds tonight knowing they have nothing to be guilty about. They have done nothing wrong. They did everything right on that day and we have proved it."
As she stood on the steps of St George's Hall, Margaret paid a special tribute to Professor Phil Scraton for his work with the Hillsborough Independent Panel - and Scraton's words, printed in the next day's Liverpool Echo, go to some lengths in encapsulating the events of a truly landmark day.
"Today, through all the heartbreak and tears, the families, survivors and everyone who refused to let the forces of darkness win, should feel proud - they have done themselves, their city and, most importantly, the 96 men, women and children who should never have been allowed to die at Hillsborough, proud," he wrote.
"At times, they have been castigated and mocked - by crass, unfeeling outsiders who had the gall to tell them to shut up, move on and accept what they had already been told.
"But they overcame every obstacle and faced down every slight and setback, fuelled by the power of love - love for lost family members and friends and love for what many people in high places apparently view as an old-fashioned concept: justice."