The 54-year-old is facing a lengthy prison term after admitting a total of 31 charges on the day he was due to stand trial
Paul Doyle
Paul Doyle(Image: Merseyside Police)
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Gasps of horror were heard in court today (Monday, December 15) as dashcam footage from Paul Doyle's own car laid bare the sheer devastation he caused during Liverpool FC's title parade, prompting tears at the thought of the potential disaster came so close to causing. The 54-year-old, of Burghill Road in West Derby, admitted a total of 31 charges last month, having driven his car into crowds of fans during the celebrations earlier this year.
More than 100 pedestrians, ranging from babies to a 78-year-old woman, were injured after being struck by the Ford Galaxy on Water Street in Liverpool city centre shortly after 6pm on Monday, May 26, as what was meant to be a day of joy turned into scenes of terror. Fifty casualties required hospital treatment in the aftermath of the appalling incident, although they were later discharged.
Doyle changed his pleas to guilty on the day he was due to go on trial at Liverpool Crown Court, with his sentencing now due to take place over the course of two days on Monday and Tuesday. Appearing in the dock this morning wearing a black suit over a white shirt and grey tie, he appeared to become tearful at the beginning of the hearing and wiped his nose with a tissue.
Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, then told the court: “On the 27th of April 2025, Liverpool FC beat Tottenham Hotspur 5-1 to reach a points total in the Premier League that was unassailable. In becoming champions, the club achieved its 20th title.
“The city of Liverpool wished to celebrate the club’s achievement, and a parade was therefore arranged for the 26th of May 2025, the spring bank holiday. This was to involve the players and staff travelling in an open top bus on a route that started at Allerton Maze in South Liverpool at 2.30pm and travelled through the suburbs of the city before ending outside the Liver Building on the Strand, next to the River Mersey, at an estimated time of 5.30 pm. Hundreds of thousands of people, probably about a million in total, attended to watch and cheer. To begin with, this was a day of great joy.
“Although estimated to arrive at the Liver Building at 5.30pm, the open top bus in fact arrived there 10 minutes later at 5.40pm. Following its arrival, many of those who had waited on the Strand to cheer began to walk up Water Street towards Dale Street in order to make their way home. The road therefore became extremely busy with pedestrians who were spread across both pavements and the road.
“As the parade was finishing, the defendant, Paul Doyle, was driving his grey Ford Galaxy Titanium from his home into central Liverpool in order to pick up friends who had attended the parade. His vehicle weighed nearly two tonnes.
“The defendant drove the Galaxy onto Dale Street at 5.54pm and began to travel in the direction of Water Street, so on a course opposite from the direction of travel of most of the fans and towards them. From an early stage, Paul Doyle drove dangerously along that road, frightening people as he did so. Then at 5.59pm, he encountered some traffic implementation measures that were filtering vehicles off to the right. He came to halt, but, shortly afterwards, set off down the left side of Dale Street towards Water Street, ignoring the measures.
“By 6.01pm, less than two minutes later, the Galaxy was stationary on Water Street, and attempts were being made by fans to drag Paul Doyle from it. He was quickly protected by police officers, and thereafter arrested and detained, having sustained only minor injuries.
“What had happened in that short period between 5.59 pm and 6.01pm is that the defendant had driven his vehicle into a collision with well over 100 people, causing injuries including serious injuries to many and, when the vehicle was brought to a halt, people including children were trapped beneath it. The prosecution case is that the defendant had used the vehicle as a weapon over that period of time. In doing so, he not only caused injury on a large scale, but also generated horror in those who had attended what they had thought would be a day of joyfulness.
“It is important at the outset to explain what did not cause Paul Doyle, then a 53-year-old family man who lived a short distance from the city centre to behave in this way. At the time of these events, some at the scene thought that what was taking place was a terrorist attack, with the driver utilising a vehicle to attack in a way that has occurred before; for example, during the London Bridge attack on the 3rd of June 2017.
“That is not what occurred. Paul Doyle’s actions were, the prosecution is entirely satisfied, not driven by ideology. This was, it should be categorically stated, not a terrorist attack.
“So, was what happened the result of some defect in the vehicle? Did the brakes fail or the vehicle suddenly accelerate without any intervention by the driver? Paul Doyle has never suggested that happened, and expert investigation by the police has excluded any problem with the vehicle as having caused or contributed to what occurred. So, that is not the explanation.
“Was Paul Doyle drunk or high on drugs? Again, the prosecution is able to give a definitive answer to that question. He was not. At the time that he drove into and over 100 people, Paul Doyle was completely sober, and free of all drugs.
“So, why did the defendant behave in such an extraordinary and harmful way on Dale Street and Water Street? Paul Doyle claimed, when subsequently interviewed by the police, that he acted as he did in a blind panic and in fear of his life because of how some in the crowd had behaved towards him. The position of the prosecution is that this account given by the defendant to the investigators was untrue.
“The truth is a simple one. Paul Doyle just lost his temper in his desire to get to where he wanted to get to. In a rage, he drove into the crowd. When he did so, he intended to cause people within the crowd serious harm. He was prepared to cause those in the crowd, even children, serious harm if necessary to achieve his aim of getting through. The truth is as simple as the consequences were awful.
“We will play a piece of footage that illustrates the prosecution case. It is from an internal camera, the dashcam, within the defendant’s vehicle, which recorded both video and audio. The footage we are about to display shows the defendant’s driving from a point at just before he encountered traffic management measures, in the form of cones, on Dale Street. His driving had been dangerous even before this point, but what we are about to see represents the most serious aspect of his conduct. What we are about to display on the screens is truly shocking.”
Gasps were then heard in court, with many breaking down in tears, as shocking footage from Doyle’s dashcam showed him mercilessly mowing down scores of fans. It initially showed his vehicle travelling along Dale Street through a heavily populated crowd, which parted in order to allow him through.
Some were heard banging on the outside of his car in order to remonstrate with him, at which stage Doyle appeared to speed up while sounding his horn. Children were then seen jumping out of his path, while he was heard to remark "f***ing p**cks" before coming to a stop at a set of traffic cones.
The footage thereafter showed Doyle reversely slightly before shouting “f***ing d***head, f***ing p*****". He then sped off towards Water Street, crashing into a man who was thrown onto the bonnet.
Around half a dozen people were thrown to the floor as a result, but Doyle continued to shout: "F***ing move. Get out the f***ing way, f***ing hell. F***s sake, move, get out the f***ing way."
Doyle then collided with a child before saying "get out the f***ing way, move, move, move". The face of one woman could clearly be seen as she and a number of other pedestrians were trapped at the front of the moving vehicle, showing her in distress and terror.
The court thereafter heard that a heroic fan, Daniel Barr, bravely jumped into the back of Doyle’s car and pulled on the parking brake in order to bring the vehicle to a stop. Mr Greaney described the former soldier as a "hero of the events", having been "determined to stop the defendant", adding: "He had watched the parade from a position near the Liver Building.
"Once the parade ended, he started walking up Water Street, intending to return home. He observed the Galaxy in the distance and noted that the crowd’s attitude suddenly changed, from joyful to desperate. He saw the Galaxy weaving and hitting people, who were sent, as he describes it, flying into the air.
"All of a sudden, the vehicle stopped right beside him. Daniel Barr instinctively pulled open the rear passenger side door and climbed in. He did so with the intention of stopping the driver. As the car set off again, he leaned forward and moved the gear selector into park. He held it there as hard as he could.
"The Galaxy did not stop immediately, but in the end it did. However, Daniel Barr describes how, even after he had brought the vehicle to a halt, the defendant continued to keep his foot on the accelerator.
"What brought the Galaxy to a halt was a combination of the number of people trapped beneath the vehicle and the actions of Daniel Barr, not the decision of Paul Doyle. On the contrary, even with people beneath his vehicle, Paul Doyle tried to drive on."
Doyle later labelled the supporters “drunken loons” and told police he thought he was going to be stabbed by a man carrying a knife when he was interviewed by detectives. Mr Greaney said of his arrest: "The crowd was unsurprisingly highly hostile towards Paul Doyle by the time his vehicle was brought to a stop and attempted to drag him out of the Galaxy.
"Blows were delivered to him, and he sustained some minor injuries. Police officers intervened, and they forced him into a nearby police van in the midst of a hostile crowd.
"What they did was brave and effective and, in due course, we will invite the court to recognise the commitment of the emergency services as a whole that afternoon. In the back of the van, captured on the body worn camera of one of the officers, Paul Doyle said, 'I've just ruined my family’s life'.
Doyle's first interview came the day after the incident, at which stage he detailed how he had agreed to drive his friend Dave Clark's family into the city in order to watch the parade before picking them up again later in the afternoon from Exchange Street East.
Mr Greaney said: "Paul Doyle set out that he had travelled towards the direction of Dale Street. When he arrived at Dale Street, there were, he said, 'loads of fans just walking along, there was traffic in all three lanes, it was moving really slowly and I was just moving slowly as well'. The defendant explained that he was aiming for where he had dropped Dave Clark and his family off earlier that afternoon.
"The defendant said that when he had got three quarters of the way towards the Town Hall, he had encountered a parked blue car. He had beeped the car a couple of times. Then a man with ginger hair became 'very, very aggressive' with him.
"The defendant said the man was shouting at him and that he, Paul Doyle, had said something like 'well you know it is a road, isn’t it?', and that this man then opened the door to his vehicle. He said he was very shocked by this, so grabbed the door and closed it again, then tried to lock the doors but for some reason had not done so.
"The defendant went on to maintain that the door was pulled open again, he thought by the man with ginger hair, and that he looked to the right and saw a group of men near to a pub. They were two metres away from him."
Doyle went on to tell the officers: "I swear one of them had a knife by his right thigh. And then, as I got my second hand on and pulled the door, I don’t know if it was a bottle or a glass, and I think it hit me here, because I’ve got a cut there. But at the same time, all the alcohol went in my eyes and my face but in that same motion I was able to shut the door.
"At that moment, I was really panicking so I thought I was going to get stabbed. I was genuinely scared, so I was going to go right, but I couldn’t go right because that blue car was there, so my only other option was just to...
"So the way the cones were, there’s like an arc, I guess so I couldn’t have gone left, as I would have gone through up the cones, so I reversed back a little bit and then turned round and then I got off, and it was it was just really scary. I really thought I was going to get dragged out the car.
"I thought I was going to get stabbed and, as I drove into the oncoming pedestrians, I went really slow like I did going up Dale Street, like everyone else did, and then I think I was going so slowly that somebody, I’m not sure who, was able to get up to the car, smash the rear right window. And at that point, I don’t know if they’ve opened the door and got in, but I suspect they leant through, and then they got their hand around my throat, and at that moment in time, I thought I was going to get a slashed neck.
"I really thought I was going to die. I saw my kids go through my mind's eye and my wife. And then I couldn’t see as well properly, because of all the alcohol in my eyes, so I could see out of half of one eye. I was able to grab hold of his arm and then as I was driving away just to escape.
"I didn’t know at what point he kind of let go. I didn’t know if he still had a knife. I didn’t know if it was the guy with the knife. And then I just went into a blind panic and then I could see an ambulance ahead, and I just thought if I can get to there, I’m going to be safe, and then had like visors on or I was just blacked out, but all of a sudden, I got to where this ambulance was, and then I just realised that someone... I just thought this is totally horrific, and then I just pulled the car to a stop."
Mr Greaney added: "The defendant claimed that, as soon as he saw that someone had been struck by the Galaxy and fall to the side, he stopped the vehicle. In the interview, he described then being attacked by the crowd, and thanked the police for their bravery.
"It follows that what Paul Doyle appeared to be saying was that before he reached the traffic cones, all was well and his driving had been responsible. That was false. In truth, as we have seen, his driving had caused serious concern on the part of pedestrians before he reached the traffic implementations.
"In the area of the traffic cones, he maintained, a man with ginger hair had had become 'very, very aggressive' with him, had pulled the door open, certainly once and probably more than once. That was also false. The exchange with the unidentified man with ginger hair was much further back down Dale Street, and the man did nothing save try to stop the defendant driving irresponsibly, indeed dangerously, and protect his child. He did not open the defendant’s door.
"Paul Doyle went on to claim that a group of men, the defendant was to describe them as 'drunken loons', approached him from the area of a pub and one of them was openly armed with a knife. The prosecution case is that this was an invention, designed to provide a justification for what the defendant did.
"The police investigation has been unable to locate a single image of anyone with a knife in any of the footage and no witness or other person to whom they have spoken has mentioned seeing a knife. This simply did not happen.
"The defendant added that a bottle or glass was thrown at him, causing alcohol to enter his eyes and making it difficult for him to see. It is right that a small plastic cup was thrown at the defendant and that may have splashed liquid in his eyes, but the idea that he was unable to see properly is one that should be rejected. Even if it could be given credence, and we maintain not, the responsible thing to do in that situation was stop and wait for help, not plough into a crowd in a large and heavy vehicle.
"Paul Doyle went on to say that he drove to the left in a state of blind panic, terrified that he was going to be attacked, but still drove carefully and stopped as soon as he knew he had struck someone, although he had 'visors on or blacked out'. There is a lot in that which needs to be unpacked, and exposed as untrue.
"First, we are not for our part sure what the defendant meant by using the term 'visors on'. If he was describing what is sometimes called 'the red mist', then we agree. That is precisely what happened. He became enraged.
"What is, in any event, clear, is that the defendant did not black out. Throughout, he was operating the vehicle and, moreover, was shouting insults such as 'get out of the f***ing way' and 'f***ing p**cks' at the crowd. He was entirely conscious.
"Second, even if it is right that the behaviour of the crowd in the area of the traffic implementations disturbed the defendant, or even frightened him, it was his own behaviour that had caused that reaction, by the dangerous way in which he had driven down Dale Street towards those cones. And in any event, nothing could justify what he then did.
"Third, the suggestion by the defendant that he drove carefully after manoeuvring into the left-hand lane at the traffic cones is not a suggestion that bears the slightest scrutiny. He drove into or over more than one hundred people after that point. What he did was the opposite of careful.
"Fourth, the defendant’s claim that he stopped as soon as he knew that he had struck someone is a lie. It is impossible to credit the suggestion that the defendant did not know he had struck many, many people, some of whom were pressed onto his bonnet, right in front of his face.
"In any event, the defendant did not stop voluntarily. As we have explained, he stopped because of the combination of the presence of a group of fans trapped beneath his vehicle and the actions of Daniel Barr.
"Later in the interview, the defendant claimed that there were 'no obvious police in the vicinity'. As we have seen, that claim was false. There were police present throughout his journey down towards the Strand. He drove past a police van, past police officers and knocked a female police officer to the ground.
"Police officers chased after him, trying to stop what he was doing. It follows that the defendant gave a false and distorted account in that first interview.
"The defendant was interviewed on a number of further occasions. He was shown footage, including from his own dashcam. He agreed that his account did not match what was shown in the footage, but nonetheless maintained that he had behaved as he had because of fear. He said, 'I just panicked'."
Junior prosecution counsel Philip Astbury went on to read a series of statements to the court on behalf of Doyle's victims. In one, a 12-year-old boy who was injured during the incident said: "It started off as the best day ever.
"I was so excited to see my heroes go past on the open top bus, and the party atmosphere was amazing. But, soon, the day changed to the worst day of my life.
"I found myself on the floor, having been hit by a car I did not see coming. I have never felt so scared before in my life. I was split up from my mum. I felt lost, confused, didn’t know what was happening to me or why.
"I have developed a fear of crowded places since the incident. I get very anxious when crossing roads and sometimes I freeze. I need my mum to reassure me I am safe. I get a fright when I hear a car horn or the revving or noise of a speeding car.
"I have had a couple of nightmares about the incident, but all I can recall afterwards is people screaming and panicking. I often replay the incident in my head. I don’t know why I do this. Maybe it's to try and make some sense of what happened, but nothing makes sense which frustrates me.
"My mum has been so supportive, but I feel really upset when I see my mum crying. I don’t understand why the man in the car has done this to me and my mum."
The boy's mum meanwhile said in her own statement: "My happiness turned to despair. I got separated from my son. I found myself on the floor. My first thought as a parent was, 'where is my son?'.
"I then saw him motionless on the floor. He wasn’t moving, my heart sank for several seconds then I saw him move. Those seconds seemed like a lifetime.
"I felt helpless. I couldn’t explain to my son what had happened. I was supposed to look after him, and this happened right in front of me, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I felt I'd let my son down, and now he was in hospital. I felt I was not in control and helpless. I can tell you, as a mother, this is an awful feeling.
"My injuries have since healed, but it's the aftermath I have found hard to cope with and has caused me much anxiety having to watch my son deal with the pain, the frustration, him feeling down and isolated from his friends in school, the nightmares and the aftereffects on him. The sight of my son lying motionless on the road, not moving for those few seconds, and the sound of the car hitting people, will live with me forever."
The counts Doyle admitted included 17 charges of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent. The complainants in these matters were named as six-month-old Teddy Eveson, other boys and girls aged seven months, 10, 11, 13, as well as adults Jack Trotter, Jon Evans, Scott Dolan, Ashton Gilmore, Jacqueline McClaren, Jamie Fagan, Carl Martin, James Vernon, Emily Wright, David Price, James Weston and Ethan Gillard.
A further nine charges which he pleaded guilty to stated that he caused grievous bodily harm with intent to Helen Gilmore, Anna Bilonozhenko, Sheree Aldridge, Sam Alexander, Hannah O’Neill, Stefan Dettlaf, Christine Seeckts, Susan Passey and Aaron Cothliff. He finally faces sentence for three offences of wounding with intent against a 12-year-old boy, Simon Nash and Robin Darke, as well as matters of affray and dangerous driving.
It is anticipated that Doyle, who is represented by Simon Csoka KC and Damian Nolan, will be sentenced by the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC tomorrow, Tuesday. You can follow the ECHO's live coverage HERE.