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Cheers, tears and an anthem: What justice means for the families of Hillsborough victims

For 27 years,  Lynne Fox knew her big brother’s death was no accident.

Thomas Steven Fox was just 21 years old on April 15, 1989, when he was one of the 96 victims killed in the crush at Hillsborough stadium, at an FA Cup semifinal between Liverpool and Nottingham Forrest in Sheffield. Ever since, families like Fox’s have been fighting for the truth to be acknowledged after years of police deceit and cover-up.

Lynne, the youngest of three siblings and a Toronto resident, was in the courtroom in Warrington, near Liverpool, on Tuesday, when a jury in an inquiry ruled that the 96 victims were “unlawfully killed” and not simply accidental deaths, which had been the ruling of an earlier, flawed inquest. The latest ruling opens the door for criminal charges that Fox and many victims’ families believe must be laid against the police responsible.

For now, though, there is satisfaction in justice finally served, and greeted by a tearful rendition of Liverpool anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone from victims’ families, including Lynne’s mother Brenda, outside the courthouse.

“I’m pretty elated. It’s a little bit surreal. It’s been a huge weight lifted, for sure,” Lynne Fox told Yahoo Canada Sports. “I’m pretty happy.”

Just 15 years old and not a huge football fan herself at the time of the incident, Lynne was working at the time of the disaster. She didn’t even know that her brother Steve was at the match, though she knew of his passion for the game -- a Liverpool Football Club season ticketholder who often went to away games, Steve also was an assistant referee for local weekend games around the family’s home in Birkenhead, on the other side of the Mersey River from Liverpool.

“Like every Liverpool supporter, he was absolutely (a) fanatic,” said Fox. “He loved Liverpool, loved the club, and if you were going to die young and in circumstances you don’t have control over, a football match would be the place to do it.”

The Liverpool fan was just 21 years old when he was killed in the crush at Sheffield's Hillsborough stadium in 1989.
The Liverpool fan was just 21 years old when he was killed in the crush at Sheffield's Hillsborough stadium in 1989.

Fox speaks with so much fondness for her brother, one of many similar stories of lives so cruelly taken. The quest for the truth around the fatal crush of fans took so long that the siblings of the victims joined a fight their parents had started, and over that time it brought the victims’ families together in a bond borne of loss.

“A lot of the siblings were either in school or were just out in university and not really attending on a regular basis with a lot of the parents,” said Fox, who just completed work on a documentary that tells the story of the latest inquest that has taken the past two years.

“A lot of us were talking about this today — we didn’t really partake in a lot of it. We didn’t really understand. As we’ve grown and seen our parents going through it, you being to realize as you mature that this was something bigger than you realized at the time. Now we’re all fully involved and a lot of us have met and made contact through these inquests and Facebook and social media.”

Among the many failures of emergency services that day, only a few ambulances made it into the stadium while a long line of them waited outside. The inaction led to deaths that could have been prevented, and in the case of Steve Fox, denied him a wish he’d made to be an organ donor. An accident on a moped before he was 18 led him to get Brenda to sign an organ donor card that was in his wallet the day he died, but the failure to get him to a hospital in time meant that couldn’t happen.

“He was just taken round the back of the stadium and was just left, basically,” said Lynne. “So it’s always been an issue that has bothered my mom that his last wish was to be able to donate his organs to someone to help them and he was never able to do that. He was kind and caring and sensitive and funny and a great big brother.”

She moved to Canada in 2000 and has found support through the Toronto chapter of the Liverpool Supporters’ Club that meets regularly at a pub near the Yonge and St. Clair area north of the downtown core.

More than just that group, though, she’s found support from many other fans of the game who honour the memory of people like Steve who died taking in the game they loved.

She recalls a trip to BMO Field for a Toronto FC game on the anniversary of the disaster in 2012, just after the Hillsborough Independent Panel announced findings that fans were not responsible for the incident, a ruling and led to calls for the latest inquest.

“I get to the ground and I see this sea of support from the Toronto supporters and all sorts of 96 flags to remember the people and it was really moving,” she said. “It actually made me cry even though no one knew that I was a family member in the crowd, it was quite emotional.”

Lynne Fox, sister of Hillsborough victim Steve Fox, at BMO Field in Toronto.
Lynne Fox, sister of Hillsborough victim Steve Fox, at BMO Field in Toronto.