Southport attack: ‘I’m pleased parents don’t have to relive what happened’

Their worried parents then started arriving, he said.

He continued: “It was good to see the kids getting reunited with their dads and the mums as some of them were absolutely hysterical.”

He said the families had since bought cards, flowers and gifts for him and his wife.

The Hillsborough disaster survivor said: “There’s three little girls gone, that’s the tragedy of everything.

“But the ones that have survived lets hope they’re all all right.”

He said he is pleased the parents do not have relive everything that happened in a trial – where the evidence would have had to be scrutinised in minute detail.

“I’m glad for the parents they haven’t all got to sit there day after day going through it all and listen to horrific things that have happened to their kids,” he said.

Steve himself had been due to give evidence, so added he was personally relieved, too.

“I’m glad I don’t have to go myself,” he said.