Driver who rammed through crowd at Liverpool soccer parade sentenced to
over 21 years
[December 17, 2025]
By BRIAN MELLEY
LONDON (AP) — A driver who injured more than 130 people when he plowed
his car into a crowd of soccer fans celebrating Liverpool’s Premier
League championship was sentenced Tuesday to more than 21 years in
prison.
Paul Doyle rammed his minivan through a sea of fans on May 26 in two
minutes of horror that ended only when a bystander got in the vehicle
and forced it into park. It came to a rest atop people.
“You struck people head-on, knocked others onto the bonnet, drove over
limbs, crushed prams and forced those nearby to scatter in terror,"
Judge Andrew Menary told Doyle in Liverpool Crown Court. “You plowed on
at speed and over a considerable distance, violently knocking people
aside or simply driving over them, person after person after person."
Prosecutors said Doyle flew into a fury because he couldn’t get where he
was going fast enough to pick up friends who had attended the parade.
Doyle sobbed during much of the two-day sentencing as prosecutors
detailed the crime, using graphic video footage and reading emotional
statements from dozens of victims. The 54-year-old pleaded guilty last
month to 31 counts, including dangerous driving and multiple counts of
attempting or causing grievous bodily harm and intentional wounding.
The victims ranged in age from a 6-month-old boy who was miraculously
unharmed when his mother was struck and his baby carriage was tossed
aside to a 77-year-old woman pinned under the car in a pool of blood.
Court sees crime from driver's perspective
Footage from Doyle's car dashboard camera showed terrified people trying
to scramble to safety before being knocked aside, tossed in the air or
slipping under his bumper.
Many said they feared a terror attack was unfolding.
But the explanation was “as simple as the consequences were awful,”
prosecutor Paul Greaney said. “He was a man in a rage, whose anger had
completely taken hold of him."
Doyle's footage captured him cursing at people in the street, blaring
his horn and using the F-word while yelling “move, move, move.”
Even after bystander Daniel Barr, who acted instinctively and hopped in
the car when it came to a short halt, was able to stop the vehicle,
Doyle continued to hold his foot on the accelerator terrifying those
stuck under the two-tonne (4,400 pounds) vehicle, Greaney said.
When Doyle was placed in a police van, he said: “I’ve just ruined my
family’s life."
'Bodies thrown into the air'
A prosecutor spent hours reading statements of victims, some still
nursing physical injuries and others haunted by memories of the screams,
the sound of bodies being struck and the revving of the car's engine.
“The distress of seeing the crowd scatter in panic and bodies being
thrown into the air is something that will stay with me forever,” said
Sgt. Dan Hamilton of Merseyside Police, who was injured. “The noise was
sickening, dull thuds that are difficult to describe and impossible to
forget. I remember lying on the (ground) thinking ‘This is it; I’m going
to die.’”
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Police guards the site where a 53-year-old British man plowed a
minivan into a crowd of Liverpool soccer fans who were celebrating
the city's Premier League championship Monday, injuring more than 45
people in Liverpool, England, Tuesday, May 27, 2025.(AP Photo/Jon
Super, File)
A 16-year-old boy kept awake by nightmares lost his apprenticeship
as a woodworker because he couldn’t concentrate. A 23-year-old man
had to learn how to walk again. A woman not from the area said the
Liverpool accent now triggers anxiety. A woman whose daughter was a
die-hard Liverpool fan could no longer watch its matches.
“The sight of red shirts and the sounds of chants are unbearable
reminders of that day,” Susan Farrell said.
Judge rejects ‘panic’ defense
Doyle told police he had panicked as the crowd pounded on his car,
shattering a window and trying to pull him from the vehicle. But the
judge dismissed that as “demonstrably untrue” because they were
reacting to his attack.
Defense lawyer Simon Csoka said Doyle was horrified by what he did
and was ashamed and remorseful and did not expect sympathy.
Csoka acknowledged Doyle's troubled 20s when he was discharged from
the Royal Marines and had criminal convictions that included biting
a sailor's ear off in a drunken fight. But Doyle turned his life
around, went to university, had a successful IT career and raised
three children with his wife.
Doyle did not intend to harm anyone that day, Csoka said. But when
he decided to avoid a line of gridlocked cars and turned into the
crowd, "serious injury was inevitable.”
Heroism rewarded
After the sentencing, the judge said he was awarding Barr with the
High Sheriff’s Award for Bravery for his “exceptional courage" in
stopping Doyle. Barr was praised by police and Prime Minister Keir
Starmer for preventing further carnage.
Barr, an army veteran and construction worker, said he had joined a
mob that was surrounding the vehicle and had planned on trying to
shatter a window when he found a door handle unlocked and jumped in
before Doyle sped off again.
While scuffling for control of the car, he released Doyle's seatbelt
buckle “and off he disappeared” as the angry crowd pulled him away.
Police quickly intervened and arrested him.
Barr downplayed his heroics, saying he did what many others
attempted to do.
“I don’t think it’s anything special. I know it sounds mad," he
said. “But I’ll do it again.”
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