Hillsborough: Football fans' behaviour made police's job harder, says Sir Norman Bettison Yesterday's report found more than 100 police statements had been altered in order to cover-up failings in policing that day, and that the Force had spread untrue information about the conduct of fans, including that they were drunk and had robbed the dying. Sir Norman today said he had "nothing to hide" over his role in the affair. He added: "I never altered a statement nor asked for one to be altered." Today Richard Post, the former Chief Constable of South Yorkshire, said it is "absolutely essential" police officers involved in the cover-up are prosecuted. Wells, who took up the post in 1990, the year after the tragedy, admitted he was "disappointed and angry" at the police failings that had been exposed. He also said that police forces across Britain had "a culture of authoritarianism, defensiveness [and] excessive secrecy" at the time. The damning report, published yesterday by the Hillsborough Independent Panel, laid bare a cover-up which made "strenuous attempts" to shift the blame on to its 96 victims. The families of the Liverpool fans killed 23 years ago said the report had vindicated them, and have pledged to carry on their fight by pursuing criminal prosecutions against those who they said should "hang their heads in shame." Sir Norman was an off duty police inspector when he attended the game and was involved in an internal inquiry held in its aftermath. He said: "I really welcome the disclosure of all the facts that can be known about the Hillsborough tragedy because I have absolutely nothing to hide. Whilst not wishing to become a conducting rod for all the genuine and justified hurt and anguish, I would invite anyone to do the same as me and read the document and the papers online. Sir Norman said that by the time he was involved in his force's internal inquiry, on behalf of then Deputy Chief Constable Peter Hays, West Midlands Police had taken over the formal investigation into the tragedy. He said a second team was created by South Yorkshire Police to "work with solicitors who were representing South Yorkshire Police (SYP) at the Taylor Inquiry and to vet statements from its officers that were intended to be presented to the Inquiry." "Two South Yorkshire Police teams have been conflated in the minds of some commentators," Sir Norman added. Describing his role in the day, he said: "I purchased a ticket and was an off-duty spectator at the match. I later set up a receiving centre, at a local police station, for supporters who had become separated from friends and family. Yesterday Prime Minister David Cameron apologised on behalf of the Government for allowing the truth to go unchallenged for so long, saying: "A narrative about hooliganism on that day was created which led many in the country to accept that it was somehow a grey area. The panel has quite simply found 'no evidence' in support of allegations of 'exceptional levels of drunkenness, ticketlessness or violence among Liverpool fans'; 'no evidence that fans had conspired to arrive late at the stadium'; and 'no evidence that they stole from the dead and dying'. Separately, Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, today apologised again for a 2004 editorial in the Spectator, the magazine he then edited, which repeated the claim that fans' behaviour was to blame for the disaster. I'm very, very glad that this report does lay to rest the false allegation that was made at the time about the behaviour of those fans. I was very, very sorry in 2004 that the Spectator did carry an editorial that partially repeated those allegations, I apologised then and I apologise now.