Hillsborough match commander David Duckenfield was “basically a spectator” in the police control box on the day of the disaster, a court has heard.
On Tuesday, Preston Crown Court heard a second day of evidence from Michael Goddard, a former police sergeant who had been operating radios in the control box at the FA Cup semi-final on 15 April 1989.
Being questioned by Benjamin Myers QC, defending Duckenfield, Goddard said ground commander Bernard Murray would have been running the operation on the day.
He said: “It couldn’t be the match commander because he was so new.”
The court heard Duckenfield, 74, who denies gross negligence manslaughter, had been appointed to the role three weeks before the match although Goddard said he thought it was just days before.
Asked if the FA Cup semi-final would be a steep learning curve for a match commander doing the job for the first time, Goddard said: “An impossible learning curve.”
Goddard agreed a chief superintendent had to be in the police control box at a match of that size but was there as a “matter of rank rather than experience”.
The court heard there were five officers, including Goddard, Murray and Duckenfield, on duty in the control box on the day, as well as Robert McRobbie, a chief inspector who was there to observe.
Asked if Duckenfield would have been reliant on other officers, Goddard said: “Absolutely. He was a bit like Mr McRobbie, basically a spectator.”
Myers asked: “Does it follow that once he was in position of being match commander, David Duckenfield was going to rely very heavily indeed on Bernard Murray?”
Goddard replied: “Totally.”
Duckenfield, of Bournemouth, denies causing the deaths of 95 Liverpool fans who died in the fatal crush on the Leppings Lane terrace.
Under the law at the time, there can be no prosecution for the 96th victim, Tony Bland, as he died more than a year and a day after the disaster.
Former Sheffield Wednesday club secretary Graham Mackrell, 69, denies breaching a condition of the ground’s safety certificate and failing to discharge a duty under the Health and Safety Act.