Hillsborough ‘Justice for the 96’ campaigner Anne Williams dies

Hillsborough campaigner Anne Williams, who has died of cancer only a few days after the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster in which her 15 year old son Kevin was killed.

Mrs Williams, 62, whose 15-year-old son Kevin died at Hillsborough, was one of the loudest voices throughout the campaigners’ efforts for justice.

It was her fight to get her son’s inquest verdict of accidental death overturned that is credited with leading to fresh hearings for all 96 supporters who died.

She defied doctors’ expectations to attend her last public appearance at the Hillsborough memorial service at Anfield on Monday.

Mrs Williams was diagnosed with terminal cancer in October, but despite her ill-health she carried on her campaign and attended a hearing at London’s Royal Courts of Justice in December when the original inquest verdicts were quashed.

Speaking after the historic hearing, which she attended in a wheelchair, she thanked Attorney General Dominic Grieve for being “a man of his word” in pushing for the new inquests.

She said: “I am glad we never gave up. It has been hard, but we wouldn’t have been here today.

“I’d like a corporate manslaughter verdict in the inquest, it’s the least for what they have done. “God willing, I will be here, it has been a long wait to see justice. I am so glad I could be here today to hear it for myself.”

Referring to the cover-up that shifted blame away from the authorities and on to the victims, she said: “I can’t forgive them the extremes they went to. Why didn’t they just give us the truth?”

She missed out on seeing the start of the new inquest process by a week as a pre-inquest hearing will be held in London next Thursday to decide the timing and location for the new inquests.

Social media site Twitter was inundated with messages of support and condolence for her.