Everton fan Sion Owen was arrested after making an offensive gesture known as ‘The Wall’ (Picture: Sion Owen/Cavendish Press)

An Everton football fan was ordered to pay £820 after taunting Liverpool supporters about the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster.

Electrician Sion Owen, 23, was watching a match at Anfield when he was seen making pushing motion with his hands known as ‘The Wall’, a court heard.

The gesture, well known in football circles, refers to when 39 mostly Juventus supporters died after being crushed by a collapsing wall at Heysal Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, during the Liverpool vs Juventus European Cup Final.

The wall fell after crowd trouble caused a surge of Liverpool supporters to push against it from the other side. The taunting ‘Wall’ gesture is seen as a way of blaming Liverpool fans for the deaths.
Owen, however, claimed he had never heard of the tragedy, which, he said, happened so long ago it was not part of his ‘cultural reference’, Sefton magistrates court heard.

But he was found guilty of using threatening behaviour and ordered to pay a £300 and £520 in court costs and victim surcharge. He was spared a ban from all football stadiums.

Owen insisted that his hand gestures were a complaint about the Liverpool players ‘diving’ during tackles.

Owen said he’d never heard of the Heysel disaster (Picture: Sion Owen/Cavendish Press)

He told the hearing: ‘The Liverpool players ...