Paul Doyle, who rammed his car into crowds of people at a Liverpool parade, has been jailed for more than 21 years
Paul Doyle has been jailed for 21-years and six months, for driving his car into crowds at the Liverpool parade crash earlier this year.
He must serve at least two thirds of his sentence.
Doyle, 54, has been sentenced after injuring more than 130 people when he drove into crowds at Liverpool FC’s Premier League victory parade on May 26. The driver tearfully changed his plea on the second day of his trial, admitting all 31 charges against him.
In late November, Doyle 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 offences relate to 29 victims aged between six months and 77 years.
Distressing dashcam footage shown to Liverpool Crown Court captured Doyle driving into a pram carrying a baby, overturning it, and continuing to drive when a woman appeared trapped beneath his car. The courtroom was left in tears as Doyle sobbed in the dock, bowing his head.
Further footage, too graphic to be released, showed people landing on the windscreen, standing on the bonnet, and children trapped beneath the vehicle. Prosecutor Paul Greaney KC told the court Doyle “completely lost his temper and used his car as a weapon.”
“The truth is as simple as the consequences were awful,” Mr Greaney said. “He intended to cause serious harm to people within the crowd, even children, to achieve his aim of getting through.”
The youngest victim, six-month-old Teddy Eveson, was thrown about 15ft in his pram. The eldest, 77-year-old Susan Passey, spent 27 nights in hospital after being trapped under the car.
Witness statements detailed the long-term trauma caused by the attack. Emily Wright described fearing her baby had been killed: “I relive the moment repeatedly… The horror of not knowing whether he was alive or dead will haunt me forever.”
David Price, 44, who had survived metastatic stage 3C testicular cancer, said: “This trauma has taken me to a darker place than even my cancer battle did.”
Susan Passey, 77, fears she may never walk unaided again: “It was an extremely distressing and undignified time for me… I feel hurt my life will never be the same again, through no fault of my own.”
Starting his sentencing remarks for Paul Doyle, Judge Andrew Menary KC said he had generated “fear and panic” with his “prolonged and shockingly bad driving”.
He said Doyle had pleaded guilty “at the latest possible stage” after a jury had been sworn in for his trial. Judge Menary said May 26 was “meant to be a day of great civic pride for the people of Liverpool” with tens of thousands of people descending on the city centre.
He said traffic measures were in place, which Doyle was aware of because he had followed them earlier in the day. Judge Menary told Paul Doyle: “For no reason other than impatience and arrogance, your driving into the city was routinely dangerous. In poor weather conditions you repeatedly undertook other vehicles, took road hazards too quickly and drove through traffic lights at a junction.”
The judge said that on Dale Street Doyle’s driving was “aggressive and dangerous”, telling him: “You frightened pedestrians, leaning on your horn and shouting obscenities such as ‘get out of the f****** way’.
“You paused twice during this rampage. Each time you could have stopped but you chose to continue.” The judge went on to say: “Several people became trapped beneath the vehicle as you continued to move it.”
Paul Doyle dropped his head as Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary described the injuries suffered by a 10-year-old girl hit by his vehicle. He looked at the judge again as he described injuries to all of the 29 people named in the indictment but looked down, appearing to close his eyes, when some of the injuries were described.
He appeared to start to cry when the judge described him hitting the pram carrying six-month-old Teddy Eveson and when he outlined the injuries suffered by an 11-year-old boy. Doyle was in tears as the judge described injuries to 77-year-old Susan Passey and Aaron Cothliff, 17 at the time, who were both trapped under his vehicle.
The judge listed and summarised the serious physical and psychological effects of injuries suffered by each of Paul Doyle’s victims; the severe hurt, ongoing trauma and shattered lives of those struck by his car. Judge Menary said “the truth” in this case, as captured on Doyle’s dashcam and multiple CCTV cameras, was “you lost your temper” and tried to force a way through the crowd, “regardless of the consequences”.
“By you admission of guilt, you admit you intended to cause serious harm to achieve that end, even to children.”
