Coroner appointed to fresh Hillsborough inquests (From Bromsgrove Advertiser)

Coroner appointed to fresh Hillsborough inquests

1:10pm Friday 15th February 2013 in Local

A CORONER has been appointed to the fresh inquest into the deaths of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster, including Bromsgrove man Andrew Brookes.

Mr Brookes was only 26-years-old when he died at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, held at Sheffield’s Hillsborough stadium in 1989.

A new inquest into his death and those of the other Liverpool supporters who died in the stadium disaster was ordered after the original verdicts were quashed by the High Court in December.

Lord Justice Goldring, the senior presiding judge of England and Wales from January 2010 to December 2012, has been appointed as assistant deputy coroner.

But it has been confirmed that during the inquests he will have the same powers as a coroner.

Lord Justice Goldring, who sat on the trial of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor's killers, is also now to decide where the inquest will be held.

A damning report in to the Hillsborough disaster, revealing the extent of a police cover-up that attempted to shift the blame for the tragedy on to victims, was published last September.

A new police investigation and an inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission are underway.