A photographer who took pictures of the fatal crush at Hillsborough repeatedly told a police superintendent to stop the game, a court has heard.
David Cannon gave evidence at the trial of match commander David Duckenfield, who is charged with the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 Liverpool fans, and former Sheffield Wednesday club secretary Graham Mackrell, who is charged with health and safety offences, on Friday.
Cannon, who was a sports photographer working at the FA Cup semi-final on 15 April, 1989, told the jury at Preston Crown Court he was “embarrassed” about taking photos showing the crush in the Leppings Lane terrace in the minutes after the game kicked off at 3pm.
But he said: “My life is recording history, that’s what I do.”
Cannon said he could hear screaming and see people pushed against the perimeter fence, but police were not actively trying to help.
He said: “They couldn’t really have done anything at that point, it got to such a point.
“They weren’t helpless, but the game shouldn’t have started.”
Footage showed Cannon walking along the pitch talking to Superintendent Bernard Murray at 3.05pm.
He said: “I was trying to get him to stop the game, in no uncertain terms.
“I was just telling him to fucking stop the game, basically, many times as well.”
The court heard the match was stopped shortly afterwards.
Under questioning by Benjamin Myers QC, defending Duckenfield, Cannon accepted police may have been “hard wired” to believe what was happening was a pitch invasion.
He added: “To a layman like me it was so clear it was far beyond that.”
Liverpool FC fan Gary Gains described “unbelievable pressure” as crowds built up in the central pens and said he and others were pushed up against a crush barrier which eventually collapsed.
He said: “As the barrier went it released the pressure and from being in an upright position, not being able to breathe, I found myself on the ground, flat on the floor, my mouth facing downwards.”
He told the court two fans were eventually able to pull him to safety.
Gains said there had been a “mass of people” outside the turnstiles as he made his way into the stadium.
He was asked by Myers if fans were pushing to get into the ground and replied: “No, people were just, through no fault of their own, finding themselves in this environment to get into a football match.”
The court heard Gains also attended the semi-final at the ground the year before the disaster, but said the two matches were “chalk and cheese”.
He said there was more organisation outside the turnstiles in 1988 and the tunnel which led to the central pens was closed off, with police and a steward stationed on gates to direct fans elsewhere.
Duckenfield, 74, denies causing the deaths of 95 Liverpool fans.
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.
Mackrell, 69, denies breaching a condition of the ground’s safety certificate and failing to discharge a duty under the Health and Safety Act.
The trial continues.