A former Royal Marine has been jailed for more than 21 years for driving into dozens of Liverpool football fans in a “truly shocking” act that “defies ordinary understanding”.
Paul Doyle (54), bowed his head as he was sentenced at Liverpool crown court where victims and their families watched, some in tears, from the public gallery.
Merseyside police said it was a “miracle” that no one was killed when the father of three used his vehicle “as a weapon” in a moment of rage at a victory parade in the city on May 26th.
Footage from Doyle’s two-tonne Ford Galaxy showed him accelerating aggressively towards crowds, hitting 134 people in only two minutes. Some suffered life-changing injuries and many were left traumatised.
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Doyle, from Aintree in Liverpool, told police he acted in a “blind panic” and claimed he feared for his life after seeing a fan with a knife. This was disproved by detectives. He pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial last month to 31 offences against 21 adults and eight children.
Sentencing Doyle to 21 years and six months in prison, judge Andrew Menary said his actions caused “horror and devastation on a scale not previously experienced by this court”.
“You struck people head on, knocked others on to the bonnet, crushed prams and forced others to scatter in terror,” the judge said. “You ploughed on at speed, violently knocking people aside or running over them, person after person after person.”
The judge said dashcam footage from Doyle’s vehicle showed he was not acting in fear or panic, as he claimed, but out of “an inexplicable and undiluted fury”.
His “disregard for human life defies ordinary understanding”, the judge said, adding: “It is almost impossible to comprehend how any right-thinking person could act as you did”.
There was no reaction from the defendant, who had sobbed for much of the two-day hearing, as he was taken to the court cells by prison officers.
Doyle had a string of convictions in the early 1990s – including one for biting off a man’s ear in a pub brawl – but he had not been in trouble with the police for 30 years until he was arrested at the parade.
Some of those injured were left in tears as dashcam video from Doyle’s car showed him speeding towards terrified supporters while shouting “f**king pricks” and “f**king move”.
The defendant could be heard shouting “f**k’s sake move! Get out my f**king way!” before ploughing into screaming fans. A police officer described the noise as “sickening”.
As bodies lay on the ground, Doyle’s rampage was brought to a halt by a former soldier, Dan Barr, who climbed into a rear passenger seat and held the car’s gear selector in “park”. Even then, Doyle kept his foot on the accelerator, the court heard.
When Doyle was dragged into a police van through a swarm of angry fans, he told officers: “I’ve just ruined my family’s life.”
The court heard on Tuesday that those struck by Doyle’s car were aged from six months to 77 years and included a victim of the Manchester Arena terror attack in 2017.
Francesca Massey (24), said the parade had “reopened emotional wounds” and brought back vivid memories from eight years ago: “The same overwhelming fear, the moment of stillness before chaos and the desperate rush to escape with the crowd of innocent people around me.”
She added: “This is something I felt I had overcome over the past eight years, and now I feel like I have been set back again, as it reawakened previous trauma.”
Simon Csoska, defending, said Doyle was “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 and suffered. He accepts all responsibility, he expects no sympathy.”
However, he said the attacks by fans on his car were “understandable in the circumstances given the manner of his driving [but] must have been inherently frightening”: “Once he continued to drive serious injury was inevitable”.
Mr Csoska said Doyle had been described by friends as “kind, generous and selfless” and found his actions “incomprehensible and so utterly unlike the man that they know”.
He asked for the sentence to be proportionate to the injuries he caused which, he said, were “not as grave as they might have been” although that did not diminish the suffering. This was not a “deeply calculated act” and desire to cause serious injury, he added, but was “entirely unexpected and incomprehensible”. – Guardian
