Kevin Williams
Louise Ellman Excerpts(12 years, 10 months ago)
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Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op)
I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for City of Chester (Stephen Mosley) on his important presentation and on securing this debate with other Members. I pay tribute to the dedication and determination of Anne Williams in seeking out the truth and trying to secure justice.
The debate on Hillsborough called by my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Walton (Steve Rotheram) on 17 October demonstrated the continuing strength of feeling—the distress, concern and outrage—at the absence of the full information about what happened to the people who died. The deaths and the tragedy may have happened some years ago, but many people have said to me that it is as if it had happened today: the grief and anger are still there, and the determination to get to the truth of what happened remains. The highly respected Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, is chairing the panel that we hope will bring full disclosure of all the documentation available. I hope that that will go further towards establishing the truth of the dreadful tragedy.
Today’s debate, however, is about securing a new inquest on the death of Kevin Williams. That means challenging the ruling of the coroner, Dr Stefan Popper, who imposed the cut-off time of 3.15 on the day of the disaster, his statement that Kevin must have died by 3.15 and his verdict on the cause of death. In the debate this afternoon we have heard compelling evidence from several contributors about why all those aspects of the matter are challengeable and, indeed, wrong. We have heard in graphic and traumatic detail why a new inquest is a justified request. It can only be incomprehensible, and a matter of outrage, that that request has not been granted before.
A new inquest was requested previously in this House. On 26 October 1994 the then Member for Crosby, Sir Malcolm Thornton, spoke at length, imploring the Attorney-General to agree to a new inquest. He quoted Anne Williams, whose words are now recorded for all time in Hansard:
“He was just a little boy that went to watch a football match and never came home. There is nothing that I can be told now that will make the agony any worse. I just want to know the truth.”—[Official Report, 26 October 1994; Vol. 248, c. 979.]
I hope that today the Attorney-General will be able to give us information that will take us nearer to establishing that long-sought-after truth.