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 Liverpool Echo - November 28

A St John Ambulance volunteer has described in distressing detail how he tried to save lives as the Hillsborough disaster unfolded.

With proceedings in Warrington now examining the emergency response to the fatal crush which killed 96 Liverpool supporters back in 1989, Philip Saxton - a National Coal Board surveyor, whose parents, sons and nephew have all served with the St Johns - was the latest care-giver to tell the new inquests about his experiences on April 15th 1989.

Mr Saxton, who joined the organisation when he was 11 and had been involved with them for 23 years at the time of the tragedy, reported for duty that day alongside his father and nephew and knew the ground well after attending many matches as a supporter.

Having arrived at the ground around half past one, he heard over the radio that kick-off might be delayed and told the court he was not surprised because 'it was quite apparent that not all the Liverpool fans were in'.

Shortly before kick-off Mr Saxton could see fans climbing over the fences and walked towards the Leppings Lane pens where he saw two colleagues who told him: "We think you ought to know, there's been a big push, a big surge forward and there's a lot of people trapped at the fence and they're looking in difficulty."

Mr Saxton told the court he initially thought there was "something going off there" but was not overly concerned and consulted his father on what to do, as usually they would wait for help to be requested.

Having tried to find out over his radio what was happening, Mr Saxton handed it to his father and walked right up to the pens where his attention was immediately drawn to a man whose head was pressed against the fence and was turning blue.

Mr Saxton tried to open the man's airway and attempted to tilt his head back a number of times 'but you just couldn't move him. He were pinned tight to the fence'.

Having climbed onto the fence and shouted to people to move back, Mr Saxton quickly realised the enormity of the situation.

He said: "Because I assessed the situation, I knew we were in a serious problem and had a serious incident on our hands, so I went straight back to the corner to see my father and I said, can you get on the radio and radio in to our control room, which is in the first aid room, and tell them that we've got a major incident on our hand and we'd got a lot of casualties and we were going to have some deaths."

Mr Saxton went on to describe in distressing detail how he and others tried to help those trapped in the pens, where because they were pressed so tight to the fence, it was hard to assess their breathing in the normal manner, by watching the chest rise or listening.

He said: "I were going along the fence and checking people, and most of them weren't responding at all.

"I'm thinking 'Christ, things are just getting worse here. Everybody is just deteriorating. I can't get to them.'

"As you're looking up and down the next time, they've just disappeared."

Footage was shown of Mr Saxton climbing over the fence into the pen at 3.12pm, and he said at that point there were no police, stewards or ambulance officers in there.

He told the court how had to scramble across people's head and shoulders while trying to plan what to do.

The first man he treated vomited after the first few cycles of CPR and Mr Saxton turned him into the recovery position and checked to see if he was breathing before he carried on treating people, with people climbing over him as he was doing so.

He says: "In this chaotic situation you were trying to keep calm and you were trying to think clearly of what you should be doing.

"I turned around and I actually saw the enormity of the situation in front of me.

"It were just a pile of, a pile of bodies, is best I can described it, four high, all intertwined, intermingled.

"It were just a horrible sight."

He said he closed his eyes for a few seconds because it was upsetting him but then thought 'too much time has elapsed'.

"The situation has moved on. You haven't got the time to be pulling another one off and trying to resuscitate. What you've got to do is find the ones that are showing signs of life and keep them alive.

"Stop them getting to the situation that these people are in here."

He said he began to check people for signs of life but 'it seemed an eternity before I found anybody.'

Mr Saxton confirmed he left the pens through gate three and went onto the pitch just before 3.30pm where 'it was absolute mayhem. There were people laying all over the place".

He admitted he started to get a bit upset as he left the pen and felt like he needed to get out.

Having walked onto the pitch, where he again assisted many casualties, Mr Saxton met his dad.

He said: "I started to get upset and break down a bit and he kept me going."

When asked by Christina Lambert QC, counsel to the inquests, what his opinion of the emergency response was, Mr Saxton said everyone was trying to do what they thought was right.

Mr Saxton was concerned though that some of the people being taken to the first aid room were dead and would block the system for casualties and told the court he thought it should have been prioritised for those who could be saved but added: "I would have imagined it would have been very hard to coordinate anyway, it was such a large area.

"You've got to understand what a lot of the fans and a lot of the people and the police, what everybody had gone through, what everybody had seen".

In September 1990 Mr Saxton was awarded a British Empire Medal by the Queen for his heroic contribution to the emergency response on the day.

Today he told the inquests: "I did what I had to do, what anybody would have done."

Brenda Campbell, a barrister representing bereaved families, expressed to the court the gratitude of those who had lost loved ones on the day.

Ms Campbell said: "Can I simply say thank you for the evidence you have given today and for your efforts on the day itself. I should make it clear that that is on behalf of all of the families."

The coroner, Lord Justice Goldring, added at the conclusion of Mr Saxton's evidence: "Thank you very much indeed, Mr Saxton. Nobody could have done more."

The proceedings continue.