Chris Whittle suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after surviving Hillsborough. As he recalls the tragic events from 23 years ago he lays the blame on South Yorkshire Police...
Wednesday 12 September 2012 09:10, UK
The release of the Hillsborough documents on Wednesday comes 23 years after the disaster and follows a long campaign by the victims' families and those who survived.
Mr Whittle recently published a book, With Hope In Your Heart, about his experiences at Hillsborough. He added: "The tunnel was dark, very dark. It was a steep grading as it went down and a lot of people lost their footing, I almost fell and there were some people crushed underneath. "I was pushed from the back into pen four and was rammed into a barrier. My chest was expanding and I got shooting pain in my back. "I managed to get a small gap of space to push back but then a bigger surge came again and I went to the floor. "I got pulled up and that was when I screamed. I screamed because it hurt that much. "We were there for quite a while as people were being pulled into the stand above, eventually people were getting on to the pitch and I slowly tried to make my way down to the pitch but my legs were like jelly and I was shaking. "I was completely out of it by then, I knew something bad had happened but I didn't realise at that time how many had died. "When we were coming back in the car, on the radio the death toll kept going up and up - 30, 40, 50, 60, 70." Mr Whittle, who suffered cracked ribs and permanent chest damage in the disaster, says he returned home a different person and endured years of nightmares, panic attacks, flashbacks, paranoia and low self-esteem. He added: "It was constantly on the TV that night and the next day but even though I was there, I still had to watch the news reports so I could take it all in. "That night I didn't sleep a wink because I thought I was going to die. "I wasn't the only one. In fact, I was one of the lucky ones because I came home and 96 didn't."
