New inquests into the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans who lost their lives in the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy have been opened in Warrington.
A jury made up of seven women and four men was sworn in on Tuesday, April 1, by Coroner Lord Justice Goldring after being selected from a panel of 150 potential jurors.
They were advised by the coroner that the case was likely to last for a year rather than the nine months they had originally been told.
The new inquests come after the original verdicts of accidental death were quashed by a judge in 2012 following a long and tireless campaign by the relatives of the victims.
Among those fighting for the verdicts to be overturned are the families of Ellesmere Port victims James Delaney, James Hennessy and Christopher Edwards.
James Delaney, 19, a machinist at Vauxhall and a former Ellesmere Port Catholic High School pupil, never returned home from the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the Sheffield Wednesday ground on April 15, 1989.
James Hennessy, a divorced self-employed 29-year-old, of Northern Rise, was also among the dead.
He had a young daughter and was a friend of James Delaney, travelling on the same coach to the game.
Steelworker Christopher Edwards, 29, from Great Sutton, was also killed in the disaster.
Charlotte Hennessy, who was just six years old when she lost her dad James in the stadium disaster, spoke just before the inquests began: “I was an emotional wreck this weekend, I have not slept a wink.
“Hopefully this is the beginning of the end.”
The hearings will break for a week for the 25th anniversary commemorations – to be held on April 15.
