Hillsborough survivor's fight for life

The court has watched video footage of the tragedy

A witness at the trial of two senior police officers accused of manslaughter in connection with the Hillsborough football disaster has described scenes of chaos outside the Sheffield ground.

I was fighting for my life, but I was dimly aware a football match had started

Colin Moneypenny

Liverpool fan Colin Moneypenny said he was swept off his feet as he walked down a tunnel with hundreds of fans flooding into the ground before the 1989 FA Cup Semi-Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

He described the scene, in which 96 people were crushed to death, as "complete and utter chaos".

Former chief superintendent David Duckenfield, 55, and ex-superintendent Bernard Murray, 59, deny the manslaughter of two of the victims.

They also deny wilfully neglecting to carry out their public duty, in a private prosecution brought by the Hillsborough Family Support Group.

Crowd pressure

Mr Moneypenny told the Leeds Crown Court jury that he went through a gate opened on Duckenfield's orders to release turnstile pressure eight minutes before kick-off.

He said the tunnel slope and "sheer numbers" of people meant he was "literally carried off my feet for 30-40ft - I had no control of my actions from there until I landed".

96 fans died in the crush at Hillsborough

He was carried to within 10ft of the perimeter fence at the front of pen three, where most of the victims died.

"I had no choice about staying in that position for the next 15 minutes," he said.

"I was fighting for my life, but I was dimly aware a football match had started."

Both officers deny the manslaughter of John Anderson and James Aspinall at Hillsborough stadium on April 15, 1989.

Alun Jones, QC, prosecuting, said the tragedy occurred because Gate C was opened, allowing thousands of fans to flood into the pens, instead of blocking the tunnel, a "simple and obvious" step.

'Shabby' ground

He stressed the defendants' "critical omission" was not a spur of the moment decision, but took place over 20 minutes.

"These defendants appear to have regarded the spectators not as a group of individual, vulnerable men women and children, but a security problem," he said.

He said Hillsborough was an "old, shabby, badly arranged and confusing" ground, but added: "We say the primary and immediate cause of this was the failure to close the tunnel when the order to open the gates was given.

Crowd control barriers were removed from English football grounds after Hillsborough

"This, we say, amounts to manslaughter."

Earlier, victims' relatives wept as they watched a video film of events leading to the disaster, including the pre-match crowds and the moment when the gate was opened letting fans surge on to the crowded terrace.

Mr Jones said neither defendant did anything to stop the game until 1506BST when another superintendent ran on to the pitch on his own initiative.

By then distressed fans had already been seen climbing out of the pens.

Around 20 witnesses who were in the ground are expected to give evidence at the trial.

The case continues