This will be the biggest ever independent review of the police in the UK, will look into allegations that police officers’ statements were changed and that misleading information was passed to the media and parliament. It comes after the damning Hillsborough independent panel report which was published last month.
Kier Starmer, director of public prosecutions (DPP), has said he will review all the evidence in the report to decide whether new charges of manslaughter should be brought.
He said “I have now concluded that the Crown Prosecution Service should consider all the material now available in relation to the tragic events of 15 April 1989, including material made available by the independent panel,” reports The Guardian
“The purpose of this investigation is to identify what the focus of any further criminal investigation should be in order for the CPS to determine whether this is now sufficient evidence to charge any individual or corporate body with any criminal offence.”
The IPCC will investigate the aftermath of the tragedy and identify possible criminal offences or disciplinary action.
Deborah Glass, the deputy chair of the IPCC said: “We are going to be launching an independent investigation into those new matters. We’ve carried out a review of the report and begun looking at the 450,000 pages of underlying evidence. We have identified a large number of potential criminal and misconduct offences,” said Deborah Glass, the deputy chair of the IPCC.
“The potential criminal misconduct offences fall into two broad categories. There are allegations that go to the heart of what happened at Hillsborough and allegations about what happened afterwards.”
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