Charges could be brought by CPS after Hillsborough verdict

There are two investigations into the deaths at Hillsborough, and the CPS are working with them over possible criminal offences by police officers and others.

Duckenfield was in charge of crowd safety at the time.

Sue Hemming, the head of special crime and counter-terrorism division at the CPS, said: Following the inquests’ determinations, the CPS team will continue to work closely with Operation Resolve and the IPCC as in due course the CPS will formally consider whether any criminal charges should be brought against any individual or corporate body based upon all the available evidence, in accordance with the code for crown prosecutors."

Andy Burnham, the home affairs spokesman for the opposition Labour Party, said: "I would like to pay tribute to the extraordinary courage of Hillsborough campaigners in their long search for the truth. This has been the greatest miscarriage of justice of our times."

Burnham, who comes from Liverpool, said people must be held to account and there should be prosecutions.

"The Hillsborough Independent Panel gave us the truth. This inquest has delivered justice. Next must come accountability," he said.

New inquests were ordered in December 2012 when London's High Court quashed accidental death verdicts from 21 years earlier after the independent inquiry found new evidence and absolved the fans of any responsibility.

The damning report also found senior police commanders had edited their officers' witness statements to paint them in a less damaging light.

The disaster is still an open wound in Liverpool, the port city of nearly half a million people that is passionate about soccer.

Many in Liverpool still boycott Rupert Murdoch's top-selling Sun tabloid after it accused their fans of stealing from the dying, urinating on policemen and beating up an officer giving the kiss of life. The newspaper's executives have since apologised for the story.