The heavily criticised chief constable of West Yorkshire Police, Sir Norman Bettison, has resigned.
Sir Norman tendered his resignation yesterday, ahead of a meeting that was to consider his role in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster, which he investigated for South Yorkshire Police.
The police chief has been under pressure since the Hillsborough Independent Panel report was published and he is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Sir Norman said: "The tragedy 23 years ago left 96 families bereaved and countless others injured and affected by it.
"I have always felt the deepest compassion and sympathy for the families, and I recognise their longing to understand exactly what happened. I have never blamed the fans for causing the tragedy."
He dismissed reports of a conversation he had in which he allegedly said he was concocting a story while a chief inspector with South Yorkshire Police.
He said; "The suggestion I would say to a passing acquaintance I was deployed as part of a team tasked to 'concoct a false story of what happened', is both incredible and wrong. That isn't what I was tasked to do, and I did not say that."
Margaret Aspinall, chairwoman of the Hillsborough Families Support Group, welcomed the announcement but said Sir Norman's pension should be frozen during the investigation into the police cover-up.
Mrs Aspinall, who lost her 18-year-old son James in the disaster, said: "I'm delighted he's gone but as far as I am concerned he should have been sacked."
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