Hillsborough: Fan 'asked Bruce Grobbelaar to stop match'

Simon Bell (left), Gary Church (top) and 19 and Christopher Devonside (bottom) were among the victims

A Liverpool fan who escaped the crush at Hillsborough ran onto the pitch and asked the club's goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar to stop the match, the inquests into the disaster have heard.

Jason Kenworthy said he approached the keeper after escaping from the terrace where the crush occurred.

The hearings have focused on three teenage friends who were among the 96 fatally injured in the 1989 disaster.

Jurors were also told how one of the three screamed "Help me - I'm dying."

The fatal crush happened during the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989.

Pictures and video footage of Simon Bell, 17, Gary Church, 19, and Christopher Devonside, 18, inside an enclosure behind Grobbelaar's goal were shown to the jury.

Goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar could be seen in a picture shown to the jury

Mr Kenworthy could be seen at about 14:40 BST standing on a crush barrier and hitting a beach ball being thrown around by fans at the Leppings Lane end.

Christopher Devonside could be seen standing immediately next to him, on the ground.

Mr Kenworthy told the hearings Mr Devonside had been "distressed by the amount of people inside the pen" and had "wanted to move to somewhere that was less crowded."

In his statement, he said he lost sight of his friend about 15 minutes later, after a series of crowd surges.

He escaped the pen at about 15:02, two minutes after the scheduled kick-off.

Shortly afterwards, he asked Zimbabwean goalkeeper Grobbelaar to stop the match.

The next time he saw Christopher was when police laid him on the pitch, just after 15:27, the jury heard.

James Thomas was also part of the group of friends and was standing near Gary Church as the crush developed.

Mr Thomas told the court: "He shouted my nickname, Daffa - 'Daffa help me,' and he said, 'I'm dying'.

"He said 'help me' and I shouted back to him that I couldn't help him."

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"He looked at me really angrily.

"I was in no position to because I was in exactly the same position as he was, which was fighting for my life.

"I will never forget the look on his face when he did it. If I could have helped him I would have done."

Former police officer Denis Webster went on to the pitch as the disaster unfolded, and was seen carrying Gary away from pen three at 15:25.

He described a Liverpool fan who held back the crowd while officers cleared an entrance into the terrace as "an absolute hero".

The man, described as "5ft tall and 5ft wide" by Mr Webster, "put his hand on the gate and his feet on the gate and he pushed with all his might".

"He held the crowd back while we cleared the gate - then he popped out and I never saw the man again," Mr Webster said.

"He was a hero, an absolute hero. A lot of people didn't suffer injuries because of what he did."

Mr Webster gave Gary heart massage but said he "knew he was dead".

The inquests, sitting in Warrington, Cheshire, are due to resume on Friday.