Hillsborough Inquest - Summing Up

25 January 2016, 14:10 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Jurors must consider evidence "dispassionately and without emotion'', the Hillsborough inquests coroner has warned.

Addressing the jury of seven women and three men, Sir John Goldring said: "We have heard a great deal of most moving and distressing evidence.

"We would not be human if we did not feel powerful human sympathy for those touched in their different ways by the disaster and its aftermath.

"It is particularly impossible not to feel great sympathy for those who lost loved ones or to have been moved by what we heard about each of those who died, during the course of the inquests.

"There is also some evidence on the effect of the disaster on some of those who responded.

"I must give you this clear warning. I suspect it will come as no surprise.

"Whatever your feelings you must put them to one side.

"You have to address the evidence dispassionately and without emotion.

"Your findings should be based on that dispassionate assessment of the evidence you have heard.

"You should not make critical findings unless they are justified by the facts.

"However, you should not shrink from making such judgments if there.''

The coroner re-emphasised the advice he gave to the jurors at the start of the inquests in that they should put out of their mind anything they had read, heard or discussed about the disaster.

He added they should also ignore any media coverage in the following weeks and concentrate solely on the evidence heard in the courtroom.