South Yorkshire and West Midlands police agree payouts for Hillsborough ‘cover-up’

More than 600 people are to be compensated for false campaign that tried to blame victims for disaster

South Yorkshire and West Midlands police have agreed a settlement with more than 600 people to compensate them for the false police campaign aimed at avoiding responsibility for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and blame the victims instead, which bereaved families have always said was a cover-up.

The forces will pay compensation to families whose relatives were among the 96 men, women and children unlawfully killed at Hillsborough, and to survivors of the disaster, for additional trauma and psychiatric damage caused by the police campaign.