Where this was said
The Police Cover-Up Begins
At 22:26 · chapter starts 19:00
Almost before the ambulances had left, South Yorkshire Police began building their cover story. Duckenfield himself claimed Gate C had been forced open by Liverpool fans — an outright lie. The narrative was polished and consistent: fans had arrived late, drunk, without tickets, and stormed the gates. A regimented police culture meant no dissent from the rank and file. Then they went further: witness statements were collected, edited to remove comments damaging to the police, and in some cases destroyed entirely. The tabloids did the rest. The Sun's front page 'The Truth' — printed within days — accused fans of urinating on officers and looting the dead. Neither was true. The paper has been boycotted in Liverpool from that day to this, and issued an apology only in 2012. But in 1989, with hooliganism still a live memory, the lie was easy to sell.
Immediately after Hillsborough, South Yorkshire Police constructed a false narrative blaming drunk, ticketless Liverpool fans. They altered and destroyed witness statements, removed unfavourable comments, and fed the story to tabloids. The Sun's infamous 'The Truth' front page amplified the lies — and was believed by most of England for over two decades.
The Sun newspaper, which printed false claims that Liverpool fans urinated on police and looted the dead, has been boycotted in Liverpool ever since and still barely sells there today.
