The families of the 96 people killed at the Hillsborough football stadium have been vindicated after new inquests into the disaster determined they had been unlawfully killed.
After a 27-year struggle to learn the truth, the rulings this week swept aside claims fans were drunk, stole from the bodies and urinated on officers. It also laid bare the actions of the police that day such as taking blood samples, including some from children, to suggest fans had been drinking, and the concocting of notes afterwards to support their narrative it was the behaviour of the fans that led to the tragedy.
It is a verdict that represents one of the most damning indictments of a British police force. The jury answered 14 questions about what happened at the football ground, concluding comprehensively it was the actions of South Yorkshire police officers that were the principal cause of the diaster.
As well as the failings of the South Yorkshire police, the jury criticised the South Yorkshire ambulance service, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and its engineers, Eastwood and partners.
They concluded there were safety deficiencies on the part of Hillsborough itself, the Sheffield City Council and other authorities whose duty it was to license the ground for safety. The jury decided the 96 died by gross negligence manslaughter.
After the verdicts, family called out: ‘‘God bless the jury''.
Outside, during a break, the relatives gathered and spontaneously sang Liverpool football club's anthem, You'll Never Walk Alone.
Football is a global sport and New Zealanders are among the fans of Liverpool. Twenty-seven years on, the complete vindication of the dead fans will only go so far to alleviating the hurt and pain families have suffered for so long.
How did such a cover-up carry on for so long? In what has been described as the darkest day for British journalism, The Sun ran claims from anonymous police officers that, as people were dying at Hillsborough, their fellow supporters stole form them, urinated on police officers and beat up ‘‘brave cops'' trying to help.
The stories were initially defended by the paper as vital reporting of the truth but it emerged in 2012 they were sent by a news agency and carried by The Sun almost verbatim.
A police officer approached a Conservative MP offering to tell him ‘‘the truth'', and officers then told the MP the stories of supporters urinating on police while they were pulling the dead and injured out and of being kicked and punched.
The allegation was taken to the highest level - then prime minister Margaret Thatcher. The police officer finally admitted in the latest inquest the stories were a fabrication.
No-one was found with extra wallets or stolen goods when their bodies were finally examined as part of an autopsy. Video footage failed to identify anyone urinating, punching or kicking emergency services.
The verdict is a triumph for football supporters, for the city of Liverpool and the showing of solidarity shown by the families who shared a common loss and a determination beyond anything most people can imagine. The system is now known to have failed to save 41 people who may have lived.
Disturbingly, some of the features of the Hillsborough tragedy do not seem so remote, even in New Zealand. The cover-up was easy because too much of Britain was willing to allow one group of people - football fans from the failing northern city of Liverpool - to be represented as somehow different from the rest. Unfortunately, this is a global trend and New Zealand is not exempt from isolating particular groups for blame and, in some extreme cases, retribution.
Now is a particularly poignant time to remember the anguish of the Hillsborough families and make a conscious effort to make decisions which do not disadvantage parts of a community which should never again walk alone.
