THE family of Bromsgrove football fan Andrew Brookes, who died in the Hillsborough stadium disaster in 1989 has finally received some answers, after a jury in the latest inquests determined that the victims of the disaster were unlawfully killed.

Mr Brookes was one of 96 Liverpool fans who were involved in a fatal crush in the terraces at Sheffield Wednesday football ground on April 15, 1989. They had gathered for the start of a semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

A previous inquest in 1990 had ruled that the deaths were accidental, but in 2012 the Attorney General had the original verdicts quashed and ordered that the deaths should be considered afresh.

Speaking at the time of the 2012 announcement, Mr Brookes’ sister Louise, who was 17 at the time of her brother’s death, said: “The death certificate is not worth the paper it’s printed on. We always hoped for a new inquest, and for the truth to come out. We were never going to stop fighting.”

Mr Brookes’ father George had campaigned for his son and the other Liverpool fans to receive justice, but he passed away in 2014 after the original inquest verdicts were quashed, but before he was able to give evidence in the fresh inquests.

Andrew Brookes, who was 26 years old when he died, was also finally given an official time and cause of death, when the jury determined he had died as a result of compression asphyxia at some point between 3.03pm and 3.37pm during the crush at the stadium.

No emergency response evidence from after 3.15pm was heard at the original inquests, but medical experts who gave evidence at the fresh inquests said the cut-off was arbitrary and wrong.

The jury at the Hillsborough inquests were given 14 questions to answer over the disaster, and they returned a range of conclusions, all damning both the police operational procedure on the day, and safety at the Sheffield Wednesday ground, blaming police for their slow response to an increasing crowd at the Leppings Lane end of the stadium, after road closures fed fans in that direction.

Fans were fed into a tunnel to the central pens of the terrace, which the jury concluded should have been closed off earlier, and commanding officers failed to consider where fans would go, which led to the fatal crush in the central section of the terrace.

The jury was asked to say if those who died in the disaster were unlawfully killed, and they concluded by a majority of seven to two that they were.

The jury, which has been sitting at the inquests for two years, also determined that the behaviour of the football supporters didn’t cause or contribute to the dangerous situation at the turnstiles, exonerating fans who had previously been accused of contributing to the disaster.

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club was criticised by the jury for failures in planning for the match and for not delaying the match kick-off after learning of the crowds at the turnstiles, but the jury determined that the club did not cause or contribute to the situation that developed.

Defects in the design, construction and layout of the stadium were also decided to have contributed to the disaster, while the club’s consultant engineers Eastwood & Partners failed to recalculate capacity figures after changes were made to the terraces, and failed to update the safety certificate.

The response of the emergency services to the disaster was also held accountable, with the jury determining that police and ambulance service didn’t call in a major incident straight away, meaning that appropriate emergency responses to the crush were delayed.

Criminal charges are now expected to follow for senior police officers in charge on the day.