August 23 – Coming just a day after the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service announced that it would not be prosecuting Hillsborough police chief Norman Bettison for his part and lies in the cover-up of the disaster, Sussex police have been found to be in breach of the Freedom of Information (FoI) act.
Last December Sussex Police apologised for claiming Crystal Palace fans had ‘knives and knuckledusters’ at the Brighton game the month before.
Police superintendent Simon Nelson, who had led the policing operation at the match on the day, had suggested the fixture represented “a return to the dark days of football” also saying: “Significant number of people attempted to enter the ground with pyrotechnics, knives and knuckle-dusters, which were found following efforts to gain access through fire exit doors in the south stand.”
Crystal Palace fanzine Five Year Plan disputed claims that Palace fans had been carrying weapons and followed up on the comments, submitting a number of FoI requests which Sussex police refused to respond to by not disclosing any information on public interest grounds.
Neither of the club reports on the match had mentioned any weapons being found or recovered at the game and the Sussex police said 10 days later: “The reference to weapons being found discarded at the stadium following the Brighton v Crystal Palace match on November 28 was based on information logged by our officers on the night and done so in good faith.
“Subsequently it has been established that no such items were physically recovered at the stadium or in the city. We accept that this information was incorrect and the tweet published earlier today by one of our officers [Nelson] was wrong. Sussex police apologises to both clubs and their supporters.”
The Information Commission has now ruled that the police must either comply with the information request or issue a valid refusal notice, within the next five weeks.
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