The driver who ploughed through crowds at a victory parade for Liverpool Football Club, injuring 134 supporters, has been jailed for 21 years and six months.
Paul Doyle, 54, was travelling into the city centre to collect friends on May 26 when he “lost his temper” and drove his Ford Galaxy directly into supporters making their way home from the Premier League title celebrations.
Dashcam footage from the vehicle, played in court, showed the moments when fans were thrown onto the bonnet of the car and fell underneath it as he accelerated down a street which had been closed to traffic. Doyle, who could be heard in the footage swearing and shouting at supporters to “move”, had initially denied 31 offences he was charged with.
But last month, moments before the prosecution was due to open his trial, he changed his pleas and admitted all the charges.
The former Royal Marine cried as he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, affray, 17 charges of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, nine counts of causing GBH with intent and three counts of wounding with intent.
The 29 victims named in the indictment ranged in age from six-month-old Teddy Eveson, whose pram was thrown in the air in the crash, to 77-year-old Susan Passey.
Doyle stared straight ahead, blinking, with no expression as the judge handed down his sentence. There was no reaction from the defendant, who had sobbed for much of the two-day hearing, as he was taken down from the dock by prison officers.
Sentencing judge Andrew Menary KC told the defendant he acted in an “inexplicable and undiluted fury” when he ploughed into crowds. He told Doyle: “It is almost impossible to comprehend how any right-thinking person could act as you did.
“To drive a vehicle into crowds of pedestrians with such persistence and disregard for human life defies ordinary understanding.” The judge added: “Your actions caused horror and devastation on a scale not previously encountered by this court.”
Doyle had travelled to the city centre from his home in Croxteth, Liverpool, to collect friends who had been at the parade. During his drive into the city he undertook other vehicles and ran a red light.
Footage showed the father of three appearing not to slow down despite Liverpool fans filling the roads. His dashcam footage captured him swearing as people pulled their children out of the way.
When he reached a line of cars turning right he paused before swerving into crowds filling the left lane. People could be seen on the bonnet of his car and falling underneath it as Doyle accelerated into the street.
His car was only brought to a stop when a Liverpool fan, Dan Barr, climbed into the back seat of the automatic vehicle and held the gearstick in park mode. Doyle, who has previous convictions for violence in the 1990s, including biting off a sailor’s ear, continued to try to accelerate but the car, which had people trapped underneath it by this point, was unable to move further.
When interviewed, he said he had seen someone with a knife and drove in panic for fear he would be attacked, but police found no evidence from CCTV or witnesses that anyone in the area had a knife. No defects were found with the car and Doyle was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
James Allison of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Why did he do it? I think the simple answer is he lost his temper. He went into a rage. He just wanted to get down that road, and in trying to get down that road those next couple of minutes probably devastated a lot of people’s lives.”
Detective Chief Inspector John Fitzgerald said: “Doyle’s total disregard for the safety of others – particularly the many young children present on Dale Street and Water Street that day – is beyond comprehension. It is sheer luck that no lives were lost.”
