How Everton fan Stephen Kelly is leading the fight for Justice for the 96 - and his brotherMichael Kelly was a quiet man. He loved the lyricism of Lennon, the urban poetry of Dylan and Dalglish.
Liverpool Football Club was his only hobby, his abiding passion.
He worked nights in Bristol, as a warehouseman, and watched every game, home and away.
He loved Anfield, the ritual of football, a couple of pints, and home cooking, in the family’s terraced house in Old Swan.
Stephen, his younger brother, was a Blue. He often joked that “the only difference between us is the colour of our shirts”.
His life changed, irrevocably, when he found Michael’s body in a cold church hall in Sheffield.
His brother was the last of Hillsborough’s 96 victims to be identified. He was 38.
Stephen now works, unpaid, helping survivors of the tragedy. You can find him in the Hillsborough Justice Campaign shop, opposite the Kop.
He’s the one in an Everton shirt.
This is his testimony. I hope it haunts the bureaucrats and politicians who, after 22 years, took the despicable decision to make the families wait for the truth, contained in Cabinet papers.
“I will fight to my dying day for our Mike’s justice. I’m the last remaining family member.
“My Mum and my sister passed away, not knowing the truth. I’m 58. I’ve had heart problems. I might not see it myself the way the Government is going
“I want to go to my mum’s grave and tell her, ‘We won. Mike (below) was not a hooligan. He wasn’t drunk. He didn’t fight with the police or steal from the dead. He was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.’
“That’s all I have to live for.
“If I had the chance to meet the Prime Minister, I’d ask him to put us out of our misery. Please do it. We need to get our lives back. We need to move on. There’s been so much silent suffering.
“There are so many people walking around, with a great weight on their shoulders. They have suicidal ideas, dark thoughts. We have an open-door policy. Some come in, have a cup of tea, and unburden themselves.
“It’s like opening the sluice gates. We can tell ourselves home truths.
“I was the same as them.
“Every time I hear the word Hillsborough – or see Kenny Dalglish on the telly – I think of Mike. I sometimes drive to the memorial just to touch his name.
“I’ve spent more than a third of my life struggling to come to terms with Hillsborough, but I still feel guilty.
“I woke at 6am today and the first word I heard, when I turned on the radio, was Hillsborough. It sent me into a downer. It’s the unexpected victims who affect you the most deeply. No one knew what Stephen Whittle [who killed himself over guilt at selling his Hillsborough ticket to a friend who died in the tragedy] was going through. I feel guilty we weren’t there to help before he took his own life. People have been worn down.
“They’ve lost jobs, marriages, families. At the time of the disaster, I was a taxi driver. I was driving around in a trance. People flagged me down – and I was driving past them.
“I was lucky. I retrained with the help of Social Services. We want no applause, but we can at least get people the right sort of support.
“To be honest, I’m worried what will happen when the papers are eventually released. I might receive some information about my brother that will tip me over the edge. There are hundreds of people – parents, brothers, sisters, grandchildren – in the same situation.
“The stress is enormous.
“We are not bad people in Liverpool. People made mistakes that day. Human beings make mistakes.
“If the truth had come out earlier, perhaps we would have forgiven... but we will never forget.”
Nor should we.
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ინგლისური ფეხბურთის ფანკლუბი, Jermain Defoe ეს დაიმახსოვრეთ
