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| Hillsborough inquests – lack of oxygen to help dying and injured | Hillsborough inquests – lack of oxygen to help dying and injured |
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| A police officer who tried to save one of the 96 people crushed to death at Hillsborough has said there was not enough oxygen or other resources made available to help dying and injured people on the football pitch. | A police officer who tried to save one of the 96 people crushed to death at Hillsborough has said there was not enough oxygen or other resources made available to help dying and injured people on the football pitch. |
| Carl Maltravers, a South Yorkshire police constable on duty at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989, became visibly emotional at the new inquests into the disaster when his original statement was read out, detailing his efforts to save Jimmy Hennessy, who was 29. | Carl Maltravers, a South Yorkshire police constable on duty at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989, became visibly emotional at the new inquests into the disaster when his original statement was read out, detailing his efforts to save Jimmy Hennessy, who was 29. |
| Maltravers confirmed that he had been having his lunch around the 3pm kick-off when he was instructed to go out to the pitch and, confronted by the sight of the lethal crush in the “pens” of the Leppings Lane terraces, said: “I had not really comprehended what I was seeing at that stage.” | Maltravers confirmed that he had been having his lunch around the 3pm kick-off when he was instructed to go out to the pitch and, confronted by the sight of the lethal crush in the “pens” of the Leppings Lane terraces, said: “I had not really comprehended what I was seeing at that stage.” |
| He began helping people climb over the metal fence in front of the pens, one man collapsed on top of him, then he tried through the fence to poke a young man who appeared to be losing consciousness. A 10-year-old boy approached him, crying, saying he had lost his dad, and Maltravers confirmed he took the boy back towards the crowd and found a man who knew him “who burst into tears and hugged the 10-year-old boy”. Maltravers then helped over the fence another young man who later wrote to the South Yorkshire police chief constable to thank him, the inquests heard. | |
| Back at the fence in front of the Leppings Lane terraces, well after 3.15pm, Maltravers then came across Hennessy, lying on his side, unattended. The court in Warrington has heard that Hennessy, a plasterer, had a daughter, Charlotte, who was six when her father died at Hillsborough, and now has three sons of her own. | |
| Maltravers said in his statement that he believed he might be able to save Hennessy, because he slapped him, and his eyes opened. With a St John Ambulance officer, Maltravers began trying to resuscitate Hennessy, shouting “Come on, come on”, and he believed Hennessy started breathing. | Maltravers said in his statement that he believed he might be able to save Hennessy, because he slapped him, and his eyes opened. With a St John Ambulance officer, Maltravers began trying to resuscitate Hennessy, shouting “Come on, come on”, and he believed Hennessy started breathing. |
| A fireman then walked past, carrying an oxygen cylinder, and Maltravers asked if he could use some of the oxygen – although, he told the inquests, he was not trained and would not have known how to use it. | A fireman then walked past, carrying an oxygen cylinder, and Maltravers asked if he could use some of the oxygen – although, he told the inquests, he was not trained and would not have known how to use it. |
| Rajiv Menon QC, representing Hennessy’s sister, Karen Gooding, and mother, Margaret Hennessy, asked Maltravers: “You were told there was no oxygen in the cylinder, or words to that effect?” | Rajiv Menon QC, representing Hennessy’s sister, Karen Gooding, and mother, Margaret Hennessy, asked Maltravers: “You were told there was no oxygen in the cylinder, or words to that effect?” |
| “I didn’t get any,” Maltravers replied. “There weren’t enough oxygen cylinders on the pitch, were there?” Menon asked. “I don’t think there was enough of anything on the pitch, sir,” Maltravers said. | “I didn’t get any,” Maltravers replied. “There weren’t enough oxygen cylinders on the pitch, were there?” Menon asked. “I don’t think there was enough of anything on the pitch, sir,” Maltravers said. |
| He then put Hennessy on a stretcher and took him up the pitch to the side of the Hillsborough gymnasium where other stretchers had been laid. A man in a suit whom Maltravers took to be a doctor – he told the inquests “it fills me with dread” to wonder if the man was not a doctor – came up, looked at Hennessy, and said: “Eyes fully dilated; he’s dead.” | He then put Hennessy on a stretcher and took him up the pitch to the side of the Hillsborough gymnasium where other stretchers had been laid. A man in a suit whom Maltravers took to be a doctor – he told the inquests “it fills me with dread” to wonder if the man was not a doctor – came up, looked at Hennessy, and said: “Eyes fully dilated; he’s dead.” |
| Maltravers then took Hennessy into the Sheffield Wednesday football club gymnasium at Hillsborough, which South Yorkshire police used to keep all the dead bodies. His body was identified by his sister at 5pm the following day in the Medico-legal centre in Sheffield. | Maltravers then took Hennessy into the Sheffield Wednesday football club gymnasium at Hillsborough, which South Yorkshire police used to keep all the dead bodies. His body was identified by his sister at 5pm the following day in the Medico-legal centre in Sheffield. |
| John Simons, a Liverpool supporter, described to the inquests a pile of bodies, intertwined, in pen 3, where a crush barrier had collapsed. | John Simons, a Liverpool supporter, described to the inquests a pile of bodies, intertwined, in pen 3, where a crush barrier had collapsed. |
| “The stack of bodies, it was about eight to 10 people high,” Simons said. “The people near the bottom were obviously dead with the weight on top of them. There was people moving in the pile of bodies.” | |
| Simons said he saw one man who was already dead, being kept upright by the pile of bodies itself: “That’s how high it was; it was keeping a fella on his feet who was dead.” | Simons said he saw one man who was already dead, being kept upright by the pile of bodies itself: “That’s how high it was; it was keeping a fella on his feet who was dead.” |
| With other supporters, Simons began to pull bodies out of the pile, passing dead and injured people up the terracing. One of those he picked up, shown in BBC footage on the screens in court, was one of the 96 people who died: Kester Ball, 16 at the time. | With other supporters, Simons began to pull bodies out of the pile, passing dead and injured people up the terracing. One of those he picked up, shown in BBC footage on the screens in court, was one of the 96 people who died: Kester Ball, 16 at the time. |
| Simons helped carry another of those who died, Barry Glover, on an advertising hoarding that supporters were using as a makeshift stretcher. Pete Weatherby QC, representing Barry Glover’s former wife, Stephanie Sweeney, asked Simons: “You were just pitching in and doing your best?” | Simons helped carry another of those who died, Barry Glover, on an advertising hoarding that supporters were using as a makeshift stretcher. Pete Weatherby QC, representing Barry Glover’s former wife, Stephanie Sweeney, asked Simons: “You were just pitching in and doing your best?” |
| “What had to be done,” he replied. “Everything had gone to pieces – there was nobody to organise at all.” | “What had to be done,” he replied. “Everything had gone to pieces – there was nobody to organise at all.” |
| Glover was 27, married, and ran a greengrocery business with his father, George, who was also at the match with Barry and three friends. George Glover, the inquests heard, went home to Bury without Barry that night, then drove back to Sheffield to find him. At 3.30am he identified his son in the Hillsborough gymnasium. | |
| The inquests was told of the desperate efforts by three separate people to save James Delaney, 19, a car worker in Ellesmere Port, who was another of the 96 people to die. | The inquests was told of the desperate efforts by three separate people to save James Delaney, 19, a car worker in Ellesmere Port, who was another of the 96 people to die. |
| Gary Rogers, a Liverpool supporter, told the inquests he gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Delaney despite having no training in how to do it. Kevin Elshaw, an apprentice footballer for Sheffield Wednesday who was a ball boy at the match, also tried. Stephen Baker, a special constable at the time, giving evidence by video link from Portugal, said he was a first aid instructor, and he tried “for a good five minutes” to revive Delaney, without any success. | |
| Delaney was taken into the Hillsborough gymnasium by other Liverpool supporters and Stephen Tucker, a South Yorkshire police sergeant. Tucker told the inquests that once inside, he was asked if Delaney was alive or dead; he replied that he was dead, and took him further in. Very quickly, he said, another officer told him: “He’s yours, son. You’re staying with him. You’re finished now.” | Delaney was taken into the Hillsborough gymnasium by other Liverpool supporters and Stephen Tucker, a South Yorkshire police sergeant. Tucker told the inquests that once inside, he was asked if Delaney was alive or dead; he replied that he was dead, and took him further in. Very quickly, he said, another officer told him: “He’s yours, son. You’re staying with him. You’re finished now.” |
| Tucker confirmed that he stayed with Delaney’s body through the night, until Delaney’s mother and father arrived to identify him, in the Hillsborough gymnasium, at 3.55am. | |
| The inquests continue. | The inquests continue. |