Police officer not guilty over soccer disaster

LONDON (Reuters) - A jury has found one of two former British policemen not guilty in the 1989 deaths of 96 Liverpool soccer fans killed in the worst disaster in British sports history, court officials said.

Ex-Superintendent Bernard Murray was found not guilty of two counts of manslaughter by a majority verdict after 21 hours of deliberation, a spokeswoman at Leeds Crown Court said.

The jury returned to deliberate the case against Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield who ran the policing operation and who is also charged with two counts of manslaughter.

The private prosecution by the Hillsborough Families Support Group followed a government decision to turn down appeals for a new inquiry into the deaths of the fans.

Lawyers for the families said the fans died in a crush after the two defendants allowed severe overcrowding in one of the stadium's terraces.

Murray was second in command to Duckenfield when the disaster took place at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the stadium in Sheffield, northern England.

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