NEWS of the Hillsborough “unlawful killing” verdict was greeted with a standing ovation for the jury at the annual delegate meeting of shop workers’ union Usdaw in Blackpool yesterday.

General secretary John Hannett broke the news at the town’s Winter Gardens conference centre — and attacked the Sun newspaper for its scurrilous coverage of the disaster.

“We can only imagine the trauma and difficulty those family members faced as they struggled for justice over many years, particularly when the Establishment did everything to avoid the truth coming out and justice being done,” he told delegates.