THE families of 96 Liverpool soccer fans who were crushed to death at a crowded stadium in 1989 declared they had finally won justice Tuesday after a jury found that police and emergency services were to blame for Britain’s worst sports disaster.

    The jury exonerated the behavior of the crowd, saying it did not contribute to the tragedy at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, and that the victims were “unlawfully killed.”

    Relatives who had waged a tireless campaign to protect the reputation of their loved ones leapt to their feet outside the courtroom, cheering and weeping, when the verdicts were announced. They sang the Liverpool soccer club’s anthem, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

    The original inquest recorded verdicts of accidental death, something the families of the victims refused to accept. Those verdicts were overturned in 2012 after a inquiry into the disaster that examined previously secret documents and exposed the wrongdoing and mistakes by police.(SD-Agencies)