UK driver jailed for driving into Liverpool parade fans
The British man who crashed his car into a crowd of Liverpool football fans during the Premier League victory parade in May, injuring more than 130 people, was sentenced to 21 and a half years in prison after admitting 31 charges related to the incident.
Prosecutors said Paul Doyle drove into a crowd of fans simply because he lost his temper, striking adults and children who were thrown from his vehicle or dragged under it.
The 54-year-old man pleaded guilty last month on the first day of his trial to charges including nine counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and 17 counts of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm.
Prosecutor Paul Greaney said on Monday that Doyle was “an angry man and his anger completely took over”, deliberately driving a car into enthusiastic fans and injuring 134 people, including eight children.
“Not only did it cause massive injury, it also caused terror to those attending what they thought would be a joyful day out,” Greaney said.
His lawyer, Simon Csoka, told the court: “The defendant is horrified by what he has done… he is remorseful, ashamed and feels deep sorrow for everyone who has been injured or suffered.”
Judge Andrew Menary, speaking of Doyle in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court, said: “It is almost impossible to understand how any right-thinking person could have acted as you have.
“To so persistently drive a vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians and disregard human life defies ordinary understanding.”
Greaney told the court on Monday that nearly a million people turned out to celebrate Liverpool’s 20th English league title and watched the open-top bus parade in which the team and its squad carried the Premier League trophy.
Doyle went downtown to pick up friends who had previously attended the parade — at approximately 6 p.m., over a 77-second period — and burst into the crowd, yelling, cursing and honking his horn as he repeatedly struck pedestrians.
One of Doyle’s victims was Anna Bilonozhenko, who traveled from Ukraine to the UK in 2024 when her Ford Galaxy was crashed and she required surgery for a fractured knee.
“We came to this country because of the war in our homeland, hoping to finally feel safe,” he said in a statement read on his behalf.
“At first we did, but now that feeling is gone… it feels like we’re losing our security again.”
Others involved described the long-term effects of the incident on themselves and their loved ones; They said they couldn’t work, look after their families, be in crowded places or watch Liverpool.
