• Hillsborough disaster

Popplewell tells Hillsborough families to move on

Liverpool fans hold up a banner for the 96 who were killed © PA Photos

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Sir Oliver Popplewell, a retired judge who chaired the public inquiry into the 1985 Bradford City stadium disaster, has called on the relatives of the victims of Hillsborough to stop their "conspiracy theories" and urged them to move on.

Popplewell's comments, made in a letter to the Times, have sparked an angry reaction after the British Parliament voted on Monday night to release previously unseen documents surrounding the 1989 disaster to the public following an e-petition.

He wrote: "The citizens of Bradford behaved with quiet dignity and great courage. They did not harbour conspiracy theories. They did not seek endless further inquiries. They buried their dead, comforted the bereaved and succoured the injured. They organised a sensible compensation scheme and moved on. Is there, perhaps, a lesson there for the Hillsborough campaigners?"

Home Secretary Theresa May pledged 'full disclosure' of all documents relating to the tragedy that left 96 Liverpool fans dead at an FA Cup semi-final between the Reds and Nottingham Forest.

Labour MP Steve Rotheram, who spoke in the House of Commons at the debate and has led the campaign for the Hillsborough files to be released, attacked Popplewell's letter.

"How insensitive does somebody have to be to write that load of drivel?'' he said. ''To mention other tragedies simply because they are football-related, as if there is some common denominator because they happened in football stadiums, beggars belief.

"Was there a conspiracy after the Bradford fire? Did the government try to blame the Bradford City fans for setting fire to the stadium on purpose? It shows how people right at the top of the establishment still harbour prejudice and ignorance."

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