Driver who ploughed through crowd at Liverpool soccer parade jailed
Many said they feared a terrorist attack might occur. But prosecutor Paul Greaney said the “results, as horrific as they were, were simple to explain”.
“He was an angry man and his anger had completely taken over him.”
Footage from Doyle’s dashboard shows him cursing at people on the street, honking his horn and swearing while yelling “move, move, move.”
As he was loaded into a police van, Doyle said: “I ruined my family’s life,” Greaney said.
The impact was much broader. A prosecutor spent hours reading statements from victims, some still suffering physical injuries, others filled with memories.
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Sergeant Dan Hamilton of Merseyside Police, who was injured, said: “The sadness of seeing the crowd disperse in panic and bodies being thrown into the air is something that will stay with me forever.”
“The noise was sickening, dull thumps that were hard to describe and impossible to forget. I remember lying on the ground thinking, ‘That’s it; I’m going to die’.”
A 16-year-old boy who was kept awake by nightmares lost his carpentry apprenticeship because he couldn’t concentrate. A 23-year-old man had to relearn how to walk. A woman who is not from the area said her Liverpool accent now triggers anxiety. A woman whose daughter was a die-hard Liverpool fan could no longer watch their matches.
“The sight of the red shirts and the sounds of the chants are irresistible memories of that day,” said Susan Farrell.
Doyle told police he panicked as the crowd attacked his car, breaking its window and trying to pull him out of the vehicle. But the judge dismissed this as a “blatant lie” because they were reacting to his attack.
Defense lawyer Simon Csoka said Doyle was horrified, ashamed, remorseful and not looking for sympathy for his actions.
Csoka acknowledged that Doyle was in his troubled 20s when he was discharged from the Marine Corps and had criminal convictions, including biting off a sailor’s ear in a drunken brawl.
But Doyle turned his life around, went to college, had a successful IT career, and raised three children with his wife.
Csoka said Doyle did not intend to harm anyone that day. But when he decided to avoid the blocked cars and turned into the crowd, “serious injury was inevitable”.
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