Tottenham fan receives three-year ban after mocking victims of the Hillsborough

After being found guilty of ridiculing the Hillsborough disaster, a Tottenham supporter has been barred from attending football matches for three years.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, Kieron Darlow, 25, of Welwyn, made the gestures on April 30 during a Premier League match between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield.

‘Darlow admits making a gesture towards the Liverpool fans and that this was an allusion to the Hillsborough incident,’ said Andrew Page of CPS Mersey Cheshire.

‘He admitted that this was to suggest that fans without tickets had pushed forward in the tragedy and had been partly to blame for the crush that led to so many deaths.

‘He accepted at court that it was his intention that Liverpool fans should see this and that it would cause them harassment, alarm and distress. He admitted that his behaviour was unacceptable and regrets his actions.

‘Darlow knew what he was doing and it was done knowing what an impact the Hillsborough tragedy had on Liverpool fans and the city of Liverpool but he did it anyway. This sort of behaviour is not only morally unacceptable, it is criminal.

‘We hope this prosecution sends a message out to all football fans that their behaviour at football games is important and that, if it crosses into criminality, they will be met with the full force of the law.’

In 1989, 97 Liverpool fans were killed in a crush at Hillsborough. In 2016, an inquest jury decided that they were unlawfully killed due to a series of police blunders.