Liverpool parade crash: Driver who mowed through crowd jailed for 21 years
A driver who plowed through crowds at Liverpool FC’s victory parade, injuring 134 people, was jailed for 21 years and six months after a judge said he acted in “inexplicable and undiluted fury.”
- Advertisement -
Paul Doyle, 54, drove his Ford Galaxy directly into fans making their way home from the Premier League title celebrations on May 26, accelerating down Water Street — closed to traffic at the time — at about 6 p.m., according to dashcam footage played in court.
Sentencing him, Judge Andrew Menary KC told Doyle: “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.” He added that the incident caused “horror and devastation on a scale not previously encountered by this court.”
Doyle, of Croxteth in Liverpool, initially denied 31 offenses but later pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, affray, 17 counts of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent, nine counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and three counts of wounding with intent. The indictment named 29 victims, ranging from six-month-old Teddy Eveson — whose pram was hurled into the air — to 77-year-old Susan Passey.
Dashcam video from Doyle’s vehicle showed fans thrown onto the bonnet and others falling underneath as he accelerated along Water Street. Moments earlier, he had used an expletive to shout at supporters to “move,” the court heard. During his drive into the city center to collect friends, Doyle undertook other vehicles, ran a red light and, on Dale Street, appeared not to slow down despite roads packed with supporters.
As traffic turned right away from the closed-off Water Street, Doyle paused and then swerved into the crowds filling the left lane. His car finally stopped only when fan Dan Barr climbed into the back seat of the automatic vehicle and held the gear selector in park, even as people were trapped beneath the car and Doyle tried to continue accelerating.
Police said Doyle was sober and not under the influence of drugs, and that no mechanical defects were found on the vehicle. He later claimed he had seen someone with a knife and drove in panic, but detectives said CCTV and witness accounts offered no evidence that anyone in the area was armed. Doyle has previous convictions for violence from the 1990s.
James Allison, of the Crown Prosecution Service Mersey–Cheshire, said Doyle “lost his temper” and “went into a rage.” He added: “He just wanted to get down that road, and in trying to get down that road those next couple of minutes probably devastated a lot of people’s lives.”
Detective Chief Inspector John Fitzgerald called Doyle’s disregard for safety “beyond comprehension,” noting the presence of “many young children” along Dale Street and Water Street that day. “It is sheer luck that no lives were lost,” he said.
The sentencing closes one of the most harrowing episodes to follow a football celebration in recent years, turning a day of jubilation for Liverpool supporters into a scene of chaos and injury. Prosecutors and police said the case underscored the lethal consequences of aggressive driving through pedestrian areas and the importance of adhering to parade road closures.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
