The 54-year-old drove his vehicle into more than 100 men, women and children, leaving them with broken bones, gruesome wounds and lasting psychological harm
Paul Doyle
Paul Doyle(Image: Merseyside Police)
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Paul Doyle was today jailed for 21 years and six months after causing scenes of horror and devastation during Liverpool FC's Premier League title parade. The 54-year-old, of Burghill Road in West Derby, admitted a total of 31 charges on the day he was due to stand trial, having ploughed 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 hurt after being struck by the Ford Galaxy on Water Street in Liverpool city centre 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, having been left with broken bones, gruesome wounds and degloving and spinal injuries.
Many were also left with lasting and profound psychological harm as a result of the sickening scenes which unfolded before their very eyes. Doyle dramatically changed his pleas last month, moments before he was due to face a jury at Liverpool Crown Court.
His sentencing has been taking place over the course of the past two days. Appearing in the dock this afternoon, Tuesday wearing a black suit over a white shirt and grey tie, he briefly closed his eyes then stared straight ahead as he learned how long he will spend behind bars.
Sentencing, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC said: "The events of the 26th of May were meant to be a day of great civic pride for the city of Liverpool. Tens of thousands of people filled the city centre to celebrate the victory parade.
"You drove your Ford Galaxy from your home to the city centre in order to collect friends. For no reason other than impatience and arrogance, your driving into the city was routinely dangerous. You undertook vehicles at speed, you drove through traffic lights at a busy junction when they were clearly showing red against you.
"You entered Dale Street at 5.54pm that afternoon. From the outset, your driving was aggressive and dangerous. You frightened pedestrians, shouting obscenities. You made a decision to drive into the heart of the crowd. You used your vehicle in a manner that turned it into a weapon, driving into and over more than 100 people.
"You paused twice during this rampage. Each time, you could have stopped but you chose to continue, ignoring the screams and chaos around you.
"The footage is truly shocking, It shows you quite deliberately accelerating into groups of fans, time and time again. You struck people head on, knocked others onto the bonnet, crushed prams and forced others to scatter in terror. You ploughed on at speed, violently knocking people aside or running over them, person after person after person.
"Several victims became trapped under the vehicle. Others were thrown into the air or propelled across the ground. Witnesses describe you continuing to press the accelerator, even when people were visibly trapped under the car.
"Your vehicle only came to a halt due to the heroic actions of a member of the public, Daniel Barr, who jumped into the back seat and moved the gear stick into the park position. His actions prevented further injury and may well have saved lives.
"It is almost impossible to think why any right thinking person could act as you did. It defies ordinary understanding. This was not a terrorist attack, as some feared at the time. You were not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. You claimed in police interviews to have acted in fear for your life.
"That account was demonstrably false. The position should be stated clearly. The crowd did not cause this incident. They reacted to it, faced with a car driving directly at them and striking multiple people.
"hey had no idea who you were or whether this was a deliberate attack of an even more serious nature. Their reactions were the instinctive actions of frightened people desperate to stop a moving threat that they couldn't understand. Those were not actions of aggression, but acts of fear. The chaos that unfolded was solely as a result of your driving.
"Your actions caused horror and devastation on a scale not previously encountered by this court. In reality, well over 100 people were struck and injured, many seriously. Parents and children, students, tourists, passers by were all caught up by what many believed in the moment to be a mass panic terrorist attack.
"The truth, as captured on your own dashcam, is that you lost your temper in a rage, determined to force your way through the crowd regardless of the consequences. You admit that you intended to cause serious harm to achieve that end, even to children."
Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, previously 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 and travelled through the suburbs of the city before ending outside the Liver Building on the Strand, next to the River Mersey.
"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. 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."
Mr Greaney, assisted by Philip Astbury, continued: "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."
The charges 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 faced 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.
The court heard Doyle had a number of previous criminal and military convictions from when he was a younger man, including an immediate custodial sentence for biting off a sailor's ear while a Royal Marine in a drunken brawl. Mr Greaney told the court: "Those efforts to rehabilitate himself after a difficult early adulthood only serve to make more shocking and tragic what he did in Liverpool that day this May."
Simon Csoka KC, for Doyle, told the court today: "We should make it clear the defendant is horrified by what he did, horrified by the consequences of what he did. He's remorseful, ashamed and deeply sorry for all those who were hurt or suffered. He accepts full responsibility. He expects no sympathy. Nevertheless it's important we emphasise his remorse."
He added: "The paradox of that day is that he was doing a favour for a friend. It was an ordinary day. He did not have any motive in the ordinary sense to cause serious injury nor did he have a desire in the ordinary sense to cause serious injury. This is a case where the consequence of his decisions was that serious injury was a virtual certainty and it was foreseen by him. It was not a case where there was a motive and desire to cause serious injury."
Mr Csoka, supported by Damian Nolan, continued: "The defendant recognises it’s fortunate the consequences of his actions weren't as grave as they might have been. His actions weren't planned. His conduct has been difficult for him to understand and accept. It’s taken him several months for him to recognise mentally what he did. He's appealed by his own conduct, the spiralling effect of his conduct was utterly unexpected for him and utterly unexpected for all those who know him well.
"There has been a period of denial, whether that can be categorised as subconscious denial is perhaps a moot point. There clearly has been an avoidance of reality. That's a well recognised phenomenon when an individual is involved in an event such as this."
In terms of personal mitigation, Mr Csoka said the defendant had lived a different life from his previous offending as a man in the early 1990s. He said: "Upon his release from prison, he transformed his life by going to university. He’s worked hard since then, had a successful career in IT, raised a family with his wife. They have three children.
"The court has been provided with a large number of character references. He was very active in his community. He's engaged in a number of occasions with charity fundraising activities. All of those people speak of a kind, generous and selfless man. It's part of the paradox of this case that how they know him is so different to the way he behaved.
"They all find his actions incomprehensible and so utterly unlike the man that they know. Again perhaps that fed into the difficulty in the defendant coming to recognise and accepting what he did. We can only emphasise again the deep sorrow and shame that the defendant feels. We accept that those are only words and it will provide no comfort to those who were hurt and those who suffered."