Hillsborough Inquests: Father lost sight of son when 'knocked over'

Paul Murray, from Stoke, was given tickets to the match at Hillsborough for his fourteenth birthday

A father lost sight of his 14-year-old son in the crowd at Hillsborough after they were "knocked over" by fellow fans in the crush, a jury has been told.

Anthony Murray gave evidence as the new inquests into the disaster focussed on the death of Paul Murray, from Stoke.

He was one of 96 fans fatally injured in the terrace crush at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989.

Paul had received tickets for the match as a birthday present days earlier.

Mr Murray told the hearing a supporter knocked into Paul within two minutes of them entering pen three of the Sheffield stadium's Leppings Lane terraces.

As he tried to help his son, he fell down to the front of the terrace.

'Tumbling down'

The jury heard Mr Murray was eventually taken to hospital with a suspected broken leg.

He said: "It was quite strange really, because there seemed to be a lot of room in front of us.

"As we moved to the side, I was just about to turn around and speak to Paul and somebody else came down the terracing and sort of caught him on the shoulder and knocked him round.

"I went down to try and stop him and I got knocked myself and then I was tumbling down the terracing. I didn't see Paul again after that."

Stephen Chippendale, an ambulance worker, described how Paul was a "waxy" colour when he saw him lying on his back on the pitch.

Mr Chippendale, who was seen with Paul in footage timed between 15:26 and 15:28 BST - more than 20 minutes after the match was halted - started to resuscitate him while a police officer gave heart massage.

He said: "Ten minutes of doing CPR - I decided to leave the casualty with the police officer and I went off to see if there was anybody else I could assist."

He said there was no response from Paul and no change in his condition as they tried to revive him.

Liverpool scarf

Sean Horstead, a barrister representing Paul's family, asked Mr Chippendale if there was "a possibility that you may have missed either a low or slow pulse in Paul at that point?"

Mr Chippendale replied: "No."

He said he did not treat any other casualties on the pitch.

The jury saw how Paul was carried the length of the field and into the stadium's gymnasium. It appeared as if a Liverpool scarf had been placed over his head.

Paul Howe, a neighbour of the Murray family, drove Paul's mother Edna to see her husband in hospital in Sheffield that evening, the court heard.

The couple asked Mr Howe to go to the gymnasium, where he identified Paul's body.

Mrs Murray saw Paul at Sheffield's Medico-Legal Centre the following morning.

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

Who were the 96 victims?

BBC News: Profiles of all those who died