A review of how bereaved families were treated by the authorities after their relatives died in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster has recommended an overhaul in postmortem processes and communication, and the need for “empathy and understanding”.
The review, led by Glenn Taylor, a retired forensic scientist, heard harrowing accounts from family members of those who died about their experiences, including being told by police officers that they could not hug their loved ones because their bodies were “the property of the coroner”.
Several of the Hillsborough families told Taylor they were never informed that a postmortem was to be carried out on their relatives, and had suffered enduring trauma from the cold and clinical nature of the process.
Margaret Aspinall said her son, James, 18, had always said he never wanted to be the subject of a postmortem, having watched the TV show Quincy, and “the fact that this happened has lived with me for the rest of my life”.
Taylor said in his review that while legally it was a coroner’s decision on whether to hold a postmortem, families should be much better informed and it was “unacceptable” that families had been left unaware of it.
Taylor’s review was commissioned by the government after the highly critical 2017 report by James Jones, the former bishop of Liverpool, into the disaster, in which 97 people were unlawfully killed due to a crush at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium.
Taylor completed the review but died on 6 August. His wife, Karen, was with the review team presenting its findings to families in Liverpool.
Families whose relatives were killed in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing also spoke to Taylor about their experiences. He found that they, too, experienced poor and traumatic communication by the authorities, although technical pathology had improved in the almost 30 years since the Hillsborough disaster.
Caroline Curry, whose son, Liam, died as a result of the Manchester Arena bombing, told Taylor that she had not wanted a postmortem done, and of her distress at a police family liaison officer informing her: “Because it was a crime scene, Liam does not belong to you and it is not my decision to make.”
Bereaved Hillsborough families also spoke of the enduring trauma caused by being shown explicit photographs of their loved ones without due warning, and later seeing such pictures available on police computers rather than being kept more secure.
The report also highlighted that the authorities must be more sensitive over any decision to retain human tissue, another experience some Hillsborough families had found deeply traumatising.
The review identified seven areas for reform, which Taylor said were common to the experience of families bereaved by the Hillsborough disaster and Manchester bombing, including:
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Talking to affected families so they know what to expect.
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Offering the opportunity to talk through the pathologist’s findings.
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Communicating with families with empathy and understanding.
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Understanding the need of families to spend time with their lost one.
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Ensuring that forensic pathology facilitates the assessment of whether a person may have survived for longer given different circumstances.
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Engaging families on possible access to postmortem photographs.
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Avoiding any potential perception that families have not been treated consistently over the postmortem process.
Taylor said lessons learned from families’ experiences after Hillsborough and other public disasters could be “embedded” into the ongoing professional development of pathologists.
In a foreword to his review, written in June this year, Taylor wrote of the Manchester families: “These families had no reason to believe that in attending the concert in Manchester Arena that night their loved ones might not return, any more than the Hillsborough families did when they waved their loved ones off to the football match. To be plunged into grief and simultaneously faced with processes, procedures, requirements and expectations from professional services is an unimaginable nightmare.
“Forensic pathology is just one of those services where what happens is alien and opaque to families, who are given no notice that this is to be their future. Forensic pathology is a special example because a postmortem examination will involve invasive procedures just at the moment the family need to feel that they retain, not lose, their unique connection with the loved one they have lost.
“These circumstances create a need for the public authorities involved to engage and communicate in ways which properly understand the experience family members will be going through … Engagement with families over the need for postmortem examinations, over what will inevitably be involved as part of those examinations, and over how the results are communicated needs to be overhauled.”
Responding to the review, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, paid tribute to the Hillsborough families for sharing their “most difficult and unimaginable experiences” with Taylor.
“I can confirm we will be accepting all of the report’s recommendations, which we will work at pace to deliver,” she said.