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With the long-awaited new hearings in Warrington now just a week away, Paddy Shennan recalls the first Hillsborough inquests from over two decades ago

The longest inquests in British legal history began at Sheffield Town Hall on Monday November 19, 1990.

Sheffield coroner Dr Stefan Popper had originally opened the inquests on April 18, 1990, and they were adjourned on May 4, 1990, pending an investigation by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The DPP eventually decided not to bring any criminal charges and so the inquests were reconvened.

It was originally expected that the hearings would take just six weeks.

The coroner arrived at the Town Hall flanked by Mervyn Jones, Assistant Chief Constable of the West Midlands and the man who led the police investigation into the Hillsborough disaster .

Inside the council chamber was a model of the Hillsborough stadium and a large video sc