Emmanuel College: 'The Hillsborough Enquiry'

Emmanuel College are delighted to welcome Christina Lambert, Lead Counsel to the Hillsborough Inquests and Henrietta Hill, Counsel for 22 families, to College to give a talk reflecting on the Hillsborough Inquests between 2014 and 2016, at 5.30pm in the Queen's Building Lecture Theatre.

In March 2014, fresh inquests into the deaths of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster were opened before a jury at a specially created court in Warrington. Over the course of the following two years the jury heard from 620 witnesses including fans, police officers, club staff and members of the ambulance service. Expert evidence was called from a number of disciplines: structural engineering, policing, pre-hospital emergency care and forensic pathology. In April 2016, the jury returned their narrative conclusions concerning the deaths stating, amongst other matters, that the fans had been unlawfully killed.

Christina and Henrietta will be talking about:

• Why fresh inquests were ordered
• Our differing roles in the inquests
• The practical and legal challenges which the inquests presented, and the solutions
• The wider perspective: concurrent investigations and possible future legal action.

Christina read History at Emmanuel. She was called to the Bar in 1988. She practises in the fields of clinical negligence, professional discipline and inquests/inquiries. Before her appointment to the Hillsborough Inquests she was Leading Counsel to the Dame Janet Smith Review into the conduct of Jimmy Savile and the linked investigation into the conduct of Stuart Hall. The Review was independent of the BBC and set up by the BBC Executive Board (chaired in that instance by Dame Fiona Reynolds).

Henrietta read Law at Emmanuel. She was a Herchel Smith Scholar to Harvard where she specialised in human rights. She was called to the Bar in 1997 and now practises in inquests, discrimination law, claims against the police and related public law cases. She also sits part-time as an Assistant Coroner and Deputy High Court Master.