Margaret Aspinall has expressed her pride at the solidarity shown by the people of Liverpool after today’s Hillsborough inquest verdict.
Aspinall was a lead campaigner in the fight for justice and lost her son James in the tragedy which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool supporters on April 15, 1989.
But after a struggle spanning close to three decades, today families of the victims were relieved to find a jury at Warrington Crown Court find that the all victims were unlawfully killed.
Aspinall, who waged a 27-year long battle with South Yorkshire Police and central government following the disaster in Sheffield, had previously refused to accept her son’s death certificate.
She said: “The fans should all go home and be proud of themselves, they are the heroes. They did nothing wrong that day and we did this for all of them too.
“Our city always gets brought down but yet again it’s the tough people of Liverpool who have had to fight a cause that was so unjust, so unfair. We’ve done it and we’ve won it and I’m proud of every single one of them.
“To do what we’ve done and achieved what we’ve done now will help other people who have never had voices who are fighting for a just cause – always have hope, do what the Hillsborough families have done. Stick together. And if I can help anyone, I will help them because we’ve received so much help from all the ordinary people.”
“I can accept it now [James’s death]. I’ve got the correct verdict. We fought for all of these years to get that. We’ve got justice hopefully for those 96. Now let’s see what follows.
“I knew in the end we will overcome them, they will not rule us.”