Hillsborough fans 'would be diverted' from full terraces

Nobody expected a disaster like the Hillsborough tragedy, a jury hears

Police told a safety official that fans would be diverted from the terrace at Hillsborough if it became full, a court heard.

Senior fire officer Ronald Grimshaw was giving evidence at the trial of match commander David Duckenfield.

Mr Duckenfield, 74, denies the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 Liverpool fans at the 1989 FA Cup match.

Ex-Sheffield Wednesday club secretary Graham Mackrell, 69, denies breaching safety legislation.

Mr Grimshaw was a member of the Officer Working Party responsible for safety advice at the Sheffield Wednesday stadium in the mid-1980s.

At the time, fans entered the central Leppings Lane terraces via a tunnel which could be closed off in the event of overcrowding.

Richard Matthews QC, prosecuting, asked him whether South Yorkshire Police had ever mentioned anything about the correct crowd density for the Leppings Lane terrace, where the fatal crush happened.

Mr Grimshaw said: "They had control of the gates on the entrance, they had also got CCTV looking at the area and police officers along the pitch side on the front."

'No pen count'

He added: "There was no count into the area, which was one of my concerns, but the way it had been looked after in the past, they assured us that if there was any danger of over-density in those areas then they would close the entrance off and divert spectators round the end of the stand."

Mr Grimshaw said fans were counted when they went through the turnstiles of the Leppings Lane end but there was not a specific count of fans who entered the tunnel leading to the central pens.

He agreed that no view was given to using the gates at the front of the terrace, in pitch perimeter fences, as emergency exits.

Mr Grimshaw said: "With the fences being there, the policy at this time was that we didn't consider forward evacuation onto the pitch."

He added: "It was never envisaged, I'm sure, by anybody that there would be the numbers coming down that tunnel that happened on that day."

And nobody in the working party had expected "anything like" the disaster to happen, he said.

The trial at Preston Crown Court continues.

The 96 victims

The 96 people who lost their lives in the Hillsborough disaster