The inquest into the death of a West Bromwich Albion fan at Hillsborough will take place almost a year on from the tragedy and focus on whether medics at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground responded quickly enough.
Senior Sheffield coroner Tanyka Rawden expressed concern that the family of Mark Townsend, who died during a game at the ground last September, have had to wait so long for the inquest into whether there were enough properly trained medical staff, adequate medical equipment, appropriate treatment and a fast enough response time.
A pre-inquest review on Thursday heard that lawyers for the family have yet to be given Sheffield Wednesday CCTV footage which could be key to the case.
Mrs Rawden said: ‘Sheffield Wednesday thought we had the CCTV [but] we only had one extract.’
Though the coroner does now have all the footage, IT problems have since prevented it being shared with lawyers representing Mr Townsend’s family, the South Yorkshire ambulance service, private medical company Lambda Medical who Wednesday employed for emergency situations, and the Sports Grounds Safety Authority. All three, plus Mr Townsend’s family and Wednesday, will have barristers at the inquest.
Three sets of CCTV footage are to be provided by the club, one of them annotated in a way which may show whether medically qualified staff were on the scene fast enough after Mr Townsend, from Harborne, Birmingham, suffered a medical emergency during the Championship game. The former car factory production line foreman was 57 when he died.
Mark Townsend (pictured) died after a medical emergency in the stands during the Championship fixture between Sheffield Wednesday and West Brom at Hillsborough
Townsend fell ill during the first half of the Championship fixture back in September
Ian Perkins, representing Wednesday, told the hearing that there was a medical response to the medical emergency ‘within three or possibly four minutes.’ Jade Bucklow, representing the family at the pre-inquest hearing, said: ‘There is a disconnect between timings.’
The coroner intends to call an independent expert witness, emergency medicine consultant Dr David Kirby, deputy medical director of Luton and Bedfordshire Hospital Trust, to give an assessment on the ‘timeliness and appropriateness’ of the medical support Wednesday provided on the day Mr Townsend died.
