A devastating new report has laid bare the "bare-faced arrogance and rank complacency" of senior police officers involved in the Hillsborough cover-up, with one figure singled out for his particularly "despicable" conduct.
The IOPC's Damning Verdict on a Decades-Long Cover-Up
On Tuesday, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) published its long-awaited findings, exposing the "vicious little lies" and "dismal failings" that followed the 1989 disaster where 97 Liverpool fans lost their lives. The report details a systematic effort by South Yorkshire Police's top brass to shift blame onto the victims, from ordering subordinates to photograph rubbish bins to combing criminal records in a bid to tarnish the names of the deceased.
The 400-page document reserves a special section for Sir Norman Bettison QPM, a former South Yorkshire Police chief inspector, whose actions are said to give "new meaning to the word 'despicable.'"
Sir Norman Bettison's Central Role in Spreading the Lie
Bettison was deeply involved in the orchestrated "counter-attack" against Liverpool supporters in the disaster's aftermath. In November 1989, he gave an aggressively anti-Liverpool half-hour video presentation to influential Tory MP Michael Shersby, before heading to Westminster to disseminate the same false narrative to other parliamentarians.
The IOPC, which secured the video complete with Bettison's own voiceover, states his deceit is clear. He falsely claimed that Liverpool supporters forced open the gate that caused the fatal crush and that police managed the crowd well. Furthermore, he searched the police HOLMES database for witness statements containing 'buzz words' about supporter behaviour and alcohol, a fruitless task aimed at supporting the false narrative.
Career Advancement and Lasting Immunity
This history proved inconvenient when Bettison applied to become Merseyside Chief Constable in 1998. An external assessor cautiously noted Bettison had been on a "small inquiry team" related to Hillsborough, but the interview panel, displaying "rank fecklessness," failed to probe further. He was hired unanimously.
Only when the Liverpool Daily Post exposed the story did Bettison begin "a journey around the truth, obfuscating and concealing." He repeatedly downplayed his role as "peripheral," a claim the IOPC says a misconduct panel could conclude was deliberate.
In 2012, after the Hillsborough Independent Review exposed South Yorkshire Police's failings, Bettison, then Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, issued a press release falsely asserting he had never "besmirched" fans. The outcry forced his resignation. Although the Crown Prosecution Service later dropped the case, the IOPC states that if Bettison were a serving officer today, he would face gross misconduct proceedings. He retired under old rules granting him immunity.
Despite the findings, Bettison retains the knighthood he received in 2006 for "services to policing," his Queen's Police Medal, and a police pension estimated at £90,000 a year. Liverpool MP Ian Byrne has demanded his knighthood be withdrawn.
The report's release was met with a "delusional, tone-deaf" statement from the South Yorkshire Police Federation chairman, who called it "opinion dressed up as fact," highlighting an enduring institutional denial that mirrors the absence of any apology from the Oxford-educated knight himself.
