Police and emergency services made "strenuous attempts" to deflect the blame for the Hillsborough disaster onto innocent fans, newly published documents about the tragedy revealed.
The disclosures were made by the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which has been overseeing the release of thousands of official documents relating the disaster.
British Prime Minister David Cameron offered a "profound" apology to the families of the 96 people who died, insisting that the report made clear that "the Liverpool fans were not the cause of the disaster".
Mr Cameron said that Attorney General Dominic Grieve will review the report as quickly as possible in order to decide whether to apply to the High Court to quash the original, flawed inquest and order a new one. It will be for the court to make the final decision.
Today's report showed that the Hillsborough families had suffered a "double injustice", both in the "failure of the state to protect their loved ones and the indefensible wait to get to the truth", and in the efforts to denigrate the deceased and suggest that they were "somehow at fault for their own deaths", said Mr Cameron.
"I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long" - David Cameron
"With the weight of the new evidence in this report, it is right for me today as Prime Minister to make a proper apology to the families of the 96 for all they have suffered over the past 23 years.
"On behalf of the Government - and indeed our country - I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long."
The families have long believed that some of the authorities attempted to create a completely unjust account of events that sought to blame the fans for what happened.
"The families were right. The evidence in today's report includes briefings to the media and attempts by the police to change the record of events."
Victims' families also disputed the findings of an initial inquest into the deaths, which ruled all the victims were dead or brain dead by 3.15pm and which subsequently recorded verdicts of accidental death.
Mr Cameron said the panel's report backed the relatives' concerns and he ordered Attorney General Dominic Grieve to consider today's findings and decide whether to apply to the High Court for new inquests.
Ninety six Liverpool supporters died in the crush at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium on 15 April 1989 - where their team were playing Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi-final.
In today's report, the Hillsborough Independent Panel said: "It is evident from analysis of the various investigations that from the outset South Yorkshire Police sought to deflect responsibility for the disaster on to Liverpool fans."
Key findings:
- South Yorkshire Police submissions altered
- ‘Substantive amendments’ to 164 police statements
- No evidence that alcohol was a factor in disaster
- False accounts in The Sun originated from an MP, police and ‘a Sheffield press agency’
- Attempts made to ’impugn the reputations’ of the dead
The Panel found evidence that South Yorkshire Police's submissions to the Taylor Inquiry, "emphasised exceptional, aggressive and un-anticipated crowd behaviour: large numbers of ticketless, drunk and obstinate fans involved in concerted action, even 'conspiracy', to enter the stadium".
The documents also reveal the "extent to which substantive amendments were made" to statements by South Yorkshire Police to remove or alter "unfavourable" comments about the policing of the match and the unfolding disaster.
116 of the 164 police statements identified for "substantive amendment" were "amended to remove or alter comments unfavourable to SYP".
One police officer said he only accepted the changes because he was suffering from post-traumatic stress and that he considered it an injustice for statements to have been "doctored" to suit the management of South Yorkshire Police, the report found.
The documents show, for the first time, that South Yorkshire Ambulance Service documents were "subject to the same process", the panel said.
The Panel went on to say the wrongful allegations about the fans' behaviour later printed in some newspapers, particularly The Sun, originated from "a Sheffield press agency, senior SYP officers, an SYP Police Federation spokesman and a local MP".
The panel said the Police Federation, "supported informally by the SYP Chief Constable" sought to develop and publicise a version of events derived in police officers' allegations of drunkenness, ticketless fans and violence.
"The vast majority of fans on the pitch assisted in rescuing and evaluating the injured and the dead," the panel said.
The documents disclosed to the panel also revealed that further attempts were made to "impugn the reputations of the deceased by carrying out Police National Computer checks on those with a non-zero alcohol level."
There is no record of these tests or their results in the medical notes of the survivors and in some there was "no apparent medical reason for the test".
The report also says "there was no evidence to support the proposition that alcohol played any part in the genesis of the disaster and it is regrettable that those in positions of responsibility created and promoted a portrayal of drunkenness as contributing to the occurrence of the disaster and the ensuing loss of life without substantiating the evidence."
'Tragedy should never have happened'
Introducing the report to the Hillsborough families at the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool, Bishop James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool and chairman of the panel, said: "For nearly a quarter of a century the families of the 96 and the survivors of Hillsborough have nursed an open wound waiting for answers to unresolved questions. It has been a frustrating and painful experience adding to their grief.
"In spite of all the investigations they have sensed that their search for truth and justice has been thwarted and that no-one has been held accountable.
"The documents disclosed to and analysed by the panel show that the tragedy should never have happened. There were clear operational failures in response to the disaster and in its aftermath there were strenuous attempts to deflect the blame onto the fans. The panel's detailed report shows how vulnerable victims, survivors and their families are when transparency and accountability are compromised.
"My colleagues and I were from the start of our work impressed by the dignified determination of the families."
He added: "The panel produces this report without any presumption of where it will lead. But it does so in the profound hope that greater transparency will bring to the families and to the wider public a greater understanding of the tragedy and its aftermath.
"For it is only with this transparency that the families and survivors, who have behaved with such dignity, can with some sense of truth and justice cherish the memory of their 96 loved ones."
