The jury in the fresh inquests into the Hillsborough tragedy is set to make a site visit to the stadium, but should not read the "deeply moving" tributes on the memorial to the disaster, a coroner has heard.
Christina Lambert QC, counsel to the inquests, said there was "broad agreement" on the parts of the stadium and local areas that should be viewed by the jury in the early stages of the inquests, scheduled to start at the end of next month.
"Our view is that it is reasonable for the jury to view the current police box even though its location is not precisely as it was in 1989," she told a pre-inquest hearing in central London.
"We also consider that it would appropriate for the jury to see the memorial but not to read the tributes.
"The reason that we make this final observation is because the jury must remain objective and must be seen to be objective in their approach to the issues.
"Having visited the memorial myself there is no doubt that the tributes made there are deeply moving."
The hearing was told a 3D computer generated model of the stadium was being prepared as an aid to the inquests, along with a 2D computer presentation depicting "key individuals" and the movements of each of the 96 victims.
Ms Lambert said the fresh inquest must conclude in a "reasonable time frame".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article