TWO police forces have agreed to pay damages to more than 600 people following a cover-up in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, lawyers said today.

The South Yorkshire and West Midlands forces agreed the settlement earlier this year, after a civil claim for misfeasance in a public office was filed on behalf of 601 people, solicitors representing the victims said.

The deal was reached despite no-one ever being convicted over the cover-up following the 1989 tragedy, in which 96 Liverpool fans died at the FA Cup semi-final.

A spokesman for Saunders Law, the lead solicitors’ firm for the group litigation, said that the claim had been started in 2015 and settled in April.

However, the case could not be reported until the conclusion of the trial of former South Yorkshire Police chief superintendent Donald Denton, 83, retired detective chief inspector Alan Foster, 74, and solicitor Peter Metcalf, 71, who acted for the force.

The three men, who were accused of amending police officers’ statements to minimise blame attaching to the force, were each cleared of two counts of perverting the course of justice last week after a judge ruled that there was no case to answer.

Lawyers said the cover-up had caused additional psychiatric injury to the survivors of the disaster and the families of those who died.

Sheila Coleman of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign said: “Families and survivors have always been very sensitive around the issue of money and compensation because our fight has never been about money.

“However, the fact that both West Midlands Police and South Yorkshire Police have agreed compensation speaks volumes in relation to what we have been fighting to establish for years.

“If this does not show the British public the appalling state that the British crime and justice system is in, then nothing will.”