Liverpool fans who survived the Hillsborough disaster suing police David Greene, partner at class-action firm Edwin Coe LLP, said: "We have started and served proceedings on South Yorkshire Police. They deny liability, suggesting claims are time barred. It would be a disgrace for the police however to rely on their conduct of vilification to suggest the victims of that vilification have no claim any more. It is only following the result of the Hillsborough Independent Panel inquiry that they have felt the veil of vilification lifting from them. This has allowed them to look again at what happened and how it has affected them since. South Yorkshire Police did not respond to requests for comment before publication. News of the legal action came on the day the BBC's Panorama programme broadcast new claims about the conduct of senior officers in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, including Sir Norman Bettison. Retired former Merseyside chief constable Bettison was a chief inspector in Yorkshire in April 1989 and one of his officers, Clive Davis, detailed a briefing both men attended on the Sunday after the tragedy. Davis said: "I was working with a senior officer at that time, it was chief inspector Norman Bettison. He said he was keen for us to go to a briefing. ""This is an opportunity for us to get ourselves recognised," those were his words to me." Davis told Panorama it was agreed at that meeting that the police strategy was to ensure blame was placed on "drunken ticketless Liverpool supporters." South Yorkshire Police said they were not in a position to comment because of the ongoing judicial processes and the IPCC investigation. In a stement, the force said: it "continues to cooperate fully with all judicial processes following the release of the Hillsborough Independent Panel's report and online archive in September 2012. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating the actions of the police in the aftermath of the Hillsborough Disaster on 15 April 1989.