Harry Potter author JK Rowling said it was down to modest labourer Dan Barr that ‘nobody died’ after he leapt into driver Paul Doyle’s Ford Galaxy
20:03, 17 Dec 2025Updated 20:13, 17 Dec 2025
Liverpool incident
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Dan Barr helped stop Liverpool parade attacker Paul Doyle(Image: PA Wire)
JK Rowling has called for Liverpool FC victory parade road rampage hero Dan Barr to get the George Cross.
The Harry Potter author said it was down to the modest labourer that ‘nobody died’ after he leapt into demon driver Paul Doyle’s Ford Galaxy as it mowed down fans and yanked the automatic motor into ‘park’ mode.
Bleeding from a cut head after stopping the two-tonne vehicle, Dan, 41, smartened himself up and went to the pub for a pint with his brother.
The ex-soldier was awarded £250 by a judge who said his ‘outstandingly brave’ actions had limited the injury toll to 134 and saved lives.
Daniel Barr heroically jumped into the back of Paul Doyle's car and stopped the vehicle as scenes of carnage unfolded during Liverpool FC's Premier League victory parade
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Dan Barr has been dubbed a hero for his actions(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hailed him a ‘hero’. Dan brushed off his antics saying: “Anybody would have done the same.”
But JK, 60, said he deserved the highest bravery gong it was possible to award in the UK. She tweeted of his heroics: “George Cross surely.
“I think it’s thanks to Daniel Barr nobody died because that man clearly wanted to cause as much carnage as he could.
“I just love how he smartened himself up and headed to the pub.”
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Doyle was jailed for more than 21 years(Image: PA)
A fan asked her if he should get the ‘Order of Merlin’ - an honour bestowed upon wizards and witches who achieved great things for the spell-casting world in her best-selling series of Harry Potter books.
JK replied: “First class, no question.”
Ex-Royal Marine Doyle, 54, was jailed for 21-and-a-half years for driving into fans attending a May open-top bus parade in honour of Liverpool’s Premier League title win last season with ‘inexplicable and undiluted fury’.
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JK Rowling has called on Dan Barr to receive an award for his heroics(Image: GETTY)
Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC told the married dad-of-three: “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.
“Your actions caused horror and devastation on a scale not previously encountered by this court.”
Liverpool Crown Court heard Doyle, who worked in IT since leaving the forces, simply ‘lost his temper’ after getting hemmed in by the crowd when he drove into the city to collect pals from the parade.
Dashcam footage from his vehicle showed fans thrown onto the bonnet as he accelerated yelling at the ‘f****** pricks’ to ‘move’ and ‘get out of the f****** way’.
His youngest victim was six-month-old Teddy Eveson whose pram was tossed into the air.
The incident left over 100 people injured
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The incident left 134 people injured(Image: @lawbeau94/X)
The judge told Dan, who attended Doyle’s sentencing hearing, his ‘actions on that day were outstandingly brave’.
“At a moment when many understandably feared for their own safety, he ran towards the danger, entered a moving vehicle and brought it to a halt, thereby preventing further injury and quite possibly saving lives,” the judge said.
Since it was created as an honour in 1940 by King George VI, the George Cross has been awarded for ‘acts of the greatest heroism or for most conspicuous courage in circumstance of extreme danger’ just 416 times.
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It is presented by the reigning monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister.
In 2021 the late Queen Elizabeth II bestowed it on part of the NHS for its response to the pandemic.