THE evidence of David Duckenfield at the inquests into the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans came amid "relentless questioning of a man struggling to recall what he does know and doesn't know", a court has heard.

Continuing his closing speech, Benjamin Myers, defending Duckenfield, said the prosecution had placed "very heavy reliance" on the answers the former South Yorkshire Police chief superintendent gave in 2015 at the hearing in Warrington.

Jurors at Preston Court were told Duckenfield was cross-examined over seven days in a manner "way beyond" what any witness had faced in the current proceedings.

On Monday, Mr Myers said: "It would appear what took place at Warrington, where it was a very different process, was Mr Duckenfield explained he did his best in the circumstances, but on the basis of hindsight he accepted there were a number of areas where he could have done better.

"He was not agreeing to the commissioning of any particular offence."

The barrister read extracts from the inquest evidence in which the Hillsborough match commander said he could see now how things went wrong on April 15, 1989 at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, and that he probably was not the best man for the job.

But Mr Myers emphasised to jurors how those comments were made with the benefit of hindsight.

Mr Myers added that some of the questioning at the inquest did not take into account Duckenfield's memory of the day.

He said: "We say that taken as a whole it is the relentless questioning of a man struggling to recall what he knows and what he doesn't know, and whose explanations, we say, were ignored - the details of them - until it seems he accepted some of it."

Mr Myers went on to say that generally there had been a "terrible objectification" of his client, who was not being treated as a normal person but as a target of blame.

He asked jurors to guard against the "very powerful" human compulsion to find someone to blame when something goes wrong.

"David Duckenfield is a real person," he continued.

"He was an excellent police officer. He was commended for meritorious service during his career."

Mr Myers told the court Duckenfield's match day briefing to officers for the semi-final, a few weeks after his appointment as match commander, showed how he was emphasising respect, safety, doing the job properly and understanding the public's position.

He said: "He went to work that day to help people. It would be a mean level of cynicism that denied him that.

"He would not have wanted this. He prepared for it (the match) as best as he could and he had confidence in officers around him."

Mr Myers also highlighted the differences between the 1988 FA Cup semi-final held at Hillsborough between the same two teams, and in 1989.

He suggested there were four key factors in 1989 - cuts in police manpower, changes in the turnstile arrangements, the "unusual" arrival pattern of thousands of people, and the disruption caused by a breakdown in police radio communications.

He said: "None of these factors had anything to do with David Duckenfield and all of which contributed to this tragedy."

Duckenfield, 74, who chose not to give evidence in his defence, denies gross negligence manslaughter.