West Midlands Police is facing fresh scrutiny over its role in the Hillsborough disaster probe – .
The pressure increased yesterday when it .
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said “amendments or changes” were made to an as yet unknown number of statements.
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The IPCC appealed for fans who were at the ground to come forward and give the “definitive account” of what happened.
Former Metropolitan Police detective Chris Mahaffey, now the Commission’s senior investigator, said: “We must assess whether there’s any evidence of criminal conduct.
“Our analysis, certainly of these large number of questionnaires completed by fans at the disaster, when you make comparison with these questionnaires against other documentation that appears to come from the same person, there are differences.
“Who was actually directing this, if there was someone directing this?”
The IPCC’s huge new investigation into the 1989 disaster, which killed 96 Liverpool fans, has already uncovered a mass of statements given by police officers on the day that were doctored by South Yorkshire Police.
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The Commission’s deputy chairman Deborah Glass said the damning report by the Hillsborough Independent Panel, published last September, raised “serious questions” over the work done by West Midlands Police.
The force ran its own inquiry into the handling of the disaster by South Yorkshire Police, which orchestrated a cover-up, falsified documents and blamed innocent supporters for the tragedy, the independent panel report found. But the West Midlands’ investigation formed the basis of Lord Taylor’s judicial inquiry into the disaster, the later decision not to prosecute individuals, and the flawed inquests whose verdicts were quashed last year.
Around 12,000 people spoke to West Midlands Police as part of its inquiry.
The West Midlands force’s deputy chief constable, David Thompson, said: “West Midlands Police is committed to giving full support to the IPCC investigation into matters raised in the Hillsborough Independent Panel Report.”