Hillsborough inquests - May 11

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 Press Association - May 11

The jury at the fresh Hillsborough inquests have began hearing evidence of the movements inside the stadium of the fans who died at Britain's worst sporting disaster.

The evidence will aim to endeavour to tell 96 individual stories from April 15 1989, the court heard.

It will set out the narrative of the day for the victims from when they arrived at the FA Cup semi-final, how they got in, which terrace pen they went into, their experience in the pens and what happened following the crush that led to the fatalities.

Video footage of the person who died would be shown where it was relevant and available.

Last week counsel to the inquest Christina Lambert QC told the jury: "It is fair to say at this stage that some of the evidence will be difficult, sometimes harrowing, and we, for our part, will do our best to minimise the distress to all."

She said that unfortunately it would not be possible to tell the full story for some of those who died because there was "precious little evidence".

The court sitting in Warrington today heard evidence about 18-year-old father-of-one Carl Lewis, from Liverpool.

Mr Lewis, whose family wanted the inquests to refer to him as Carl, travelled to the match with his two brothers and friends and only got a seat on a coach to the ground because someone dropped out.

He bought a ticket outside the ground and entered through the Leppings Lane turnstiles shortly after 2.30pm.

Carl was among a group who headed for the goal and went into central pen three, the jury heard.

In a statement, his friend, Ian Fearns, described "one horrendous surge" in the crowd at about 2.55pm just before the players came on to the pitch.

He said: "We kept going forward all the time. You could not get back, you could not even turn your body around to get your bearings.

"I guess I moved about 10 yards, From there on in there was a great build up of pressure. It then became quite intense. I could see my left arm turning colour. It was going a purply blue colour and felt numb from the elbow down."

He said the surge led to the group being split up.

He continued: "I recall trying to look to my right and then saw Carl going even more forward than what I did. I was under this intense pressure for 20 to 25 minutes."

Giving evidence, Derek Richards, who knew Carl, said he saw the teenager to his left after the game had been stopped and a crush barrier had collapsed.

He said he was in the middle of the pen, about five to 10 yards away from the perimeter fence of the pitch.

Asked about the conditions in the pen at that time, he said: " It was very, crushed, you could hardly move at all and you were just gasping for air all the time, you just couldn't breathe at all."

He glimpsed Carl's face for "about two seconds", he said.

Mr Richards added: "He seemed to be in discomfort but how bad discomfort I don't really know.

"It's just the look, like, that he just had. His face on the side view of it was 'I cannot move, I'm gasping for air".

Video footage of Carl outside the ground, entering it and then being among spectators in pen three was shown to the jury.

Miss Lambert then warned the jury that the next footage of Carl, timed at 3.21pm, was "extremely distressing". It showed Carl, wearing a bright green long-sleeved shirt, lying on a pile of other bodies at the front of the pen.

Retired police sergeant Paul Gardener told the court that he came on to the pitch to assist following the crush.

He said he provided CPR to a young man fitting Carl's description, with the help of an off-duty nurse, where he gave mouth-to-mouth and she did chest compressions.

Miss Lambert asked him: "Did there come a point when you stopped CPR?"

Mr Gardener said: "I believe we stopped when the nurse probably mentioned that there was no point in going on any further."

At 3.37pm, Carl was carried from the pitch on a makeshift stretcher by Mr Gardener and others.

He was taken to the back of Sheffield Wednesday's South Stand and to the side of a service road where other bodies were located.

Mr Gardener said he believed that he would have been immediately directed back to the pitch but said "there must have been someone there in authority because I would never have left the younger man on his own".

The witness agreed with Sean Horstead, representing Carl's family, that Carl appeared to be lying face down on the hoarding, with his feet appearing to be facing downward, when he was carried from the pitch.

He added he had no reason to disbelieve that he was the only police officer who was carrying the stretcher.

The jury has heard that overcrowding outside the Leppings Lane turnstiles led to the police match commander ordering the opening of an exit gate at 2.52pm which led to 2,000 fans entering, a significant number who headed for the central pens.

The nurse who assisted Carl stated to the court that she had no recollection of his condition.

Retired South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service employee Phillip Boyce, who was off-duty on the day, recalled that "a line of bodies had been placed against the wall" on the service road.

He said when seeing Carl he formed the view that he was already dead and had been "for a while".

Mr Boyce said there was no sign of a pulse and he then performed CPR for up to four minutes.

He said a doctor approached him and told him to stop as he had been "gone too long".

Mr Horstead asked the witness: "But for that conversation with the doctor what would you have done?"

Mr Boyce replied: "I would have carried on doing CPR until further assistance came or he was verified as dead by a professional."

He said the doctor had not conducted any physical examination of Carl.

Peter Howes, a paramedic for Derbyshire Ambulance Service, arrived at the Leppings Lane end of the stadium at about 3.55pm.

He saw Carl positioned face down with his shirt pulled over his head.

Mr Howes said he immediately turned him over and inserted an airway when he found no signs of breathing.

He went on to give chest compressions but with no response.

A doctor then approached and told him: "He's young, let's give him a chance. Can we get this patient to hospital?"

Carl was then taken to Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital via ambulance as heart compressions and ventilation continued, with oxygen also administered.

Miss Lambert asked Mr Howes if, in his judgment, there were any signs of life throughout the time he was with Carl.

Mr Howes replied: "I'm afraid not."

He added: "We had no real idea what we were dealing with, which was a criminal thing. Had we have known my procedure would have been slightly different."

Mr Horstead said that on behalf of Carl's family he wished to thank him for the "extended efforts" he made.

The hearing continues tomorrow.