Hillsborough trial acquittals

Tim Kendal (instructed by Ian McCombie of Ward Hadaway Solicitors) secured the acquittal of Peter Metcalf at Manchester Crown Court. Mr Metcalf had been accused of perverting the course of justice when advising in relation to what evidence might properly be submitted by his clients, the South Yorkshire Police, to the Taylor Inquiry into the Hillsborough Disaster in 1989 and in subsequent civil and coronial proceedings. It was Mr Metcalf’s case, supported by all the contemporaneous documents, that he had merely done his job as a solicitor, acting on the advice of a QC and to the direction of none other than Lord Justice Taylor himself.

The trial followed probably the most costly investigations in the history of criminal litigation. The trial judge, Davis J, stopped the case at half time accepting all the defence arguments put to him on behalf of Mr Metcalf. Additionally, the learned judge accepted a submission made on behalf of Mr Metcalf that a QC, called by the prosecution to provide “expert” evidence and who had been extensively cross-examined on behalf of Metcalf, was no longer to be treated as an expert witness on duties owed by a solicitor to a coroner’s inquest.

Tim Kendal has specialised in solicitors’ disciplinary matters and solicitors’ duties and regulation for many years having previously specialised in serious fraud and corporate crime and is recognised by the legal directories as a leader in his field in those specialised areas of practice.

Two other defendants being tried with Mr Metcalf were also acquitted on the direction of the trial judge.

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