Paul Doyle, the dad-of-two who ploughed his Ford Galaxy into Liverpool FC’s trophy parade, has been jailed for 21 and a half years.
The former Royal Marine commando has wept in the dock during all of his court appearances after injuring at least 134 people on May 26, including one six-month-old and one seven-month-old baby.
Fans celebrating the football team’s win became trapped under the wheels of the car while others were thrown over the bonnet after the 54-year-old accelerated into the packed crowd wearing a sea of red shirts.
The five-month-old who had been in it, Teddy Eveson, was thrown 15ft.
Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, said: ‘The defendant drove into that pram.
‘Remarkably, [Teddy] was uninjured.’
His parents Sheree Aldridge and Dan Eveson had proudly dressed him in a tiny Liverpool shirt and said they were ‘excited to share this moment’ with their infant son.
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Ms Aldridge said: ‘In that moment I thought I was going to die. I didn’t know where Dan and Teddy was. I felt an overwhelming pain in my leg and looked up to see Teddy’s pushchair on its side further up
the road. I thought my Teddy was dead.
(Picture: Merseyside Police)
‘I thought I was next. I thought my children would grow up without a mother.’
Doyle was only stopped after hero member of the public Daniel Barr managed to enter the vehicle and put the gear into park after seven-minutes of destruction.
Some 276 pieces of footage were watched but in the end, the most significant piece of evidence was Doyle’s own dashcam.
It was described as ‘the most graphic and distressing footage’ police have ever encountered, while the Crown Prosecution Service dubbed it an ‘act of calculated violence’.
In the video, which will not be released to the public due to how graphic it is, Doyle can be heard screaming ‘get out the f****** way’ as victims of all ages were thrown over his bonnet.
Jailing Doyle today, Judge Andrew Menary KC told him: ‘The footage is truly shocking. It is difficult, if not impossible, to convey in words alone the scene of devastation you caused.
‘It shows you quite deliberately accelerating into groups of fans time and time again.
‘You struck people head-on, you knocked others on to the bonnet, drove over limbs, crushed prams, and forced those nearby to scatter in terror.
‘You ploughed on, at speed, and over a considerable distance, violently knocking people aside or simply driving over them – person after person after person.
‘You accelerated forwards and backwards repeatedly, several victims became trapped beneath the vehicle as you continued to move it – others were thrown into the air or propelled across the ground.’
The judge said Doyle’s rampage was ‘not a result of momentary recklessness or a panicked reaction’.
He added: ‘The truth – as captured on you own dashcam and multiple CCTV and mobile recordings – is that you lost your temper in a rage.
‘You were determined to force your way through the crowd regardless of the consequences.
(Picture: AFP)
‘By your pleas of guilty you admit that you intended to cause serious harm to achieve that end – even to children.’
DCI John Fitzgerald, from Merseyside Police, said: ‘Doyle’s total disregard for the safety of others—particularly the many young children present on Dale Street and Water Street that day—is beyond comprehension. It is sheer luck that no lives were lost.’
In a dramatic plea change last month, Doyle admitted to 31 charges, including 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 team bus was travelling down The Strand, which passes the end of Water Street, before the incident as people were ready to head home.
Mr Greaney said the incident was not terrorism, the vehicle was not faulty, he was an experienced driver and ‘completely sober’.
Doyle told police he was attacked when his car windows were broken, he had alcohol thrown in his face and was in a ‘blind panic and in fear of his life’, Mr Greaney said, adding: ‘That is untrue.
‘The prosecution regards that as unsurprising given he was driving a 1.9-tonne vehicle into a crowd…
with well over 100 people, causing serious injuries to many.
‘When the vehicle was brought to a halt, people including children were trapped beneath it.
‘The defendant used the vehicle as a weapon. He not only caused injury on a large scale but also generated horror in those attending what they had thought would be a day of joyfulness.’
A police bodycam recorded him in the back of their van, telling officers who kept him from angry victims: ‘I’ve just ruined my family’s life.’
In a statement read to the court, David Price, 44, said he was invited to Liverpool to celebrate the end of cancer treatment.
He said: ‘This weekend was meant to be joyful, a symbol of recovery and hope after surviving one of the darkest periods of my life.
‘This trauma has taken me to a darker place than even my cancer battle did.’
He said as Paul Doyle’s car came towards him, he thought: ‘This is it.’
He added: ‘I truly believe that if I hadn’t instinctively lifted myself off the bonnet, I would have been dragged underneath. That fear, raw and paralysing, has stayed with me every day since.’
Doyle had driven from his Croxteth home to pick up friends from the event after dropping them off earlier. But his driving was faster and aggressive on the second trip, including undertaking.
Mr Greaney said: ‘That the defendant was initially motivated that day by kindness only serves to make what he did later the more staggering.’
He added of the motive: ‘Paul Doyle lost his temper in his desire to get where he wanted to get to.
‘In a rage, he drove into the crowd. When he did so, he intended to cause people within the crowd serious harm. The truth is as simple as the consequences were awful.’
Doyle sobbed in the dock as impact statements were read out from some, including first victim Jack
Trotter, 23, whose promising football career was ended by injury.
‘Life was a struggle,’ he said. ‘I needed support with all aspects of my daily living.’
Helen Gilmore, 51, said her then 17-year-old son Ashton had ‘to witness their parent being hit by a car’, adding: ‘That moment, that responsibility, was far too much for someone his age to bear.’
A 16-year-old victim said he had been waking up in the night seeing and hearing a car coming towards him since the incident.
The mother of a 13-year-old girl, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, said her daughter is now ‘anxious about being in crowded spaces’.
Another mother said their daughter had been referred to counselling because of the rampage.
John Davey, 31, said he ‘cannot see a future without pain, without stress, without anxiety’ after fracturing his spine in three places.
Jamie Fagan, 27, said he thought he would die when he was hit by Doyle’s car, saying: ‘I genuinely believed my life was about to end in one of the most catastrophic ways.’
Robin Darke, 62, said he was left laying in the street for hours ‘freezing, in agony and terrified’.
He endured five operations due to complications from an open wound on his ankle and is now ‘permanently scarred and disfigured’.
In his statement, Mr Darke said: ‘The physical scars are visible, but the emotional ones run deeper.
‘We did not deserve this. No one does.’
Police who attended the scene also spoke of the horror of the ‘sickening’ noise of bodies being thrown into the air after they were hit by Doyle’s car.
Sergeant Sadie Harker, of Merseyside Police, said it was the ‘single most traumatic event’ she had experienced in more than 22 years of police service.
She said: ‘I feared for my life; the first time I have felt like that.’
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