Former police chief will not be prosecuted over alleged lies he told following the Hillsborough disaster

A former police chief will not be prosecuted over alleged lies he told following the Hillsborough disaster.

Sir Norman Bettison, who was a chief inspector of South Yorkshire Police at the time of the tragedy in 1989, had been due to face trial next year.

He was accused of untruthfully describing his role in the response as “peripheral” in a comment to then chief inspector of constabulary Sir David O’Dowd, in 1998, when he applied for the job of chief constable in Merseyside.

Sir Norman, the former Merseyside and West Yorkshire chief constable, had been charged with four counts of misconduct in a public office.

But at a Preston Crown Court hearing on Tuesday, the Crown Prosecution Service said the proceedings would be discontinued.

Independent

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