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 on Tuesday sentenced to more than 21 years in prison.
Paul Doyle on May 26 rammed his minivan through a sea of fans 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.”
Photo: AP
Prosecutors said Doyle flew into a fury because he could not 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 last month pleaded guilty 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 six-month-old boy who was miraculously unharmed when his mother was struck and his baby carriage tossed aside to a 77-year-old woman pinned under the vehicle in a pool of blood.
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.
However, 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 yelling “move, move, move.”
Even after bystander Daniel Barr, who acted instinctively and hopped in the vehicle when it came to a short halt, was able to stop the minivan, Doyle continued to hold his foot on the accelerator terrifying those stuck under the 2 tonne vehicle, Greaney said.
When Doyle was placed in a police van, he said: “I’ve just ruined my family’s life.”
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 British 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 vehicle, 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,” he said. “I know it sounds mad, but I’ll do it again.”
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