It has been 34 years since police officers pursued despicable acts of deceit to cover up the incompetence which claimed the lives of 97 football fans at Hillsborough — and five years since that very treachery was spelt out in shocking detail, in the findings of an exhaustive public inquiry.
On Tuesday, police chiefs found themselves able to apologise.
'Profound failures' were the words used to describe the conduct of senior officers, in a carefully curated press statement from the national body for chief constables.
They admitted to 'profound failures' in a carefully curated press statement
It didn't include the nasty little details of what those failures looked like: the deliberate distortion of junior officers' evidence, which saw 164 statements substantially altered and comments unfavourable to the constabulary removed or changed in 116.