12/16/25 09:00:00
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12/16 08:58 CST Driver who rammed through crowd at Liverpool soccer parade
sentenced to over 21 years
Driver who rammed through crowd at Liverpool soccer parade sentenced to over 21
years
By BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) --- A driver who injured more than 130 people when he plowed his
car into a crowd of soccer fans celebrating Liverpool's Premier League
championship was sentenced Tuesday to over 21 years in prison.
Paul Doyle rammed his minivan through a sea of fans on May 26 in two minutes of
horror that ended only when a bystander got in the vehicle and forced it into
park. It came to a rest atop people.
"You struck people head-on, knocked others onto the bonnet, drove over limbs,
crushed prams and forced those nearby to scatter in terror," Judge Andrew
Menary told Doyle in Liverpool Crown Court. "You plowed on at speed and over a
considerable distance, violently knocking people aside or simply driving over
them, person after person after person."
Prosecutors said Doyle flew into a fury because he couldn't get where he was
going fast enough to pick up friends who had attended the parade.
Doyle sobbed during much of the two-day sentencing as prosecutors detailed the
crime, using graphic video footage and reading emotional statements from dozens
of victims.
Doyle, 54, pleaded guilty last month to 31 counts, including dangerous driving
and multiple counts of attempting or causing grievous bodily harm and
intentional wounding.
Footage from his dashboard showed terrified people trying to scramble to safety
before being knocked aside, tossed in the air or slipping under his bumper.
Many said they feared a terror attack was unfolding.
But the explanation was "as simple as the consequences were awful," prosecutor
Paul Greaney said. "He was a man in a rage, whose anger had completely taken
hold of him."
Doyle's dashboard footage captured him cursing at people in the street, blaring
his horn and using the F-word while screaming "move, move, move."
When Doyle was placed in a police van, he said: "I've just ruined my family's
life," Greaney said.
The impact was far broader.
A prosecutor spent hours reading statements of victims, some still nursing
physical injuries and others haunted by memories.
"The distress of seeing the crowd scatter in panic and bodies being thrown into
the air is something that will stay with me forever," said Sgt. Dan Hamilton of
Merseyside Police, who was injured. "The noise was sickening, dull thuds that
are difficult to describe and impossible to forget. I remember lying on the
(ground) thinking ?This is it; I'm going to die.'"
A 16-year-old boy kept awake by nightmares lost his apprenticeship as a
woodworker because he couldn't concentrate. A 23-year-old man had to learn how
to walk again. A woman not from the area said the Liverpool accent now triggers
anxiety. A woman whose daughter was a die-hard Liverpool fan could no longer
watch its matches.
"The sight of red shirts and the sounds of chants are unbearable reminders of
that day," Susan Farrell said.
Doyle told police he had panicked as the crowd pounded on his car, shattering a
window and trying to pull him from the vehicle. But the judge dismissed that as
"demonstrably untrue" because they were reacting to his attack.
Defense lawyer Simon Csoka said Doyle was horrified by what he did and was
ashamed and remorseful and did not expect sympathy.
Csoka acknowledged Doyle's troubled 20s when he was discharged from the Marines
and had criminal convictions that included biting a sailor's ear off in a
drunken fight. But Doyle turned his life around, went to university, had a
successful IT career and raised three children with his wife.
Doyle did not intend to harm anyone that day, Csoka said. But when he decided
to avoid a line of gridlocked cars and turned into the crowd, "serious injury
was inevitable."
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This version corrects to say he was sentenced to over 21 years.
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