Paul Doyle sentencing live: Liverpool parade attacker bit off man’s ear in ‘drunken sailor fight’

Now approaching sentencing guidelines, prosecutor Paul Greaney KC said the maximum sentence was life imprisonment.

He said given that many of the victims were vulnerable due to their age, with the youngest being six months old and the oldest 77 years old, “the culpability of the defendant is high”.

He added that Doyle used the “equivalent of an extremely dangerous weapon” in his Ford Galaxy, which weighed nearly two tonnes.

He added that many people were injured, including himself, Ms Passey, who suffered “multiple injuries”, and Robin Drake, who spent three months in a wheelchair.

For the first time, we are told that Doyle has a previous record for violence, including biting off a man’s ear during a “drunk fight with sailors.”

Due to legal restrictions, the Crown Prosecution Service has so far been unable to provide this.

When these convictions were read, some of the victims looked at each other in response.

Doyle still sits with his head in the dock.

Prosecutor Paul Greaney KC told the court the offenses were committed when Doyle was aged between 18 and 22, but after being released from prison in 1995 he “took steps to live a positive and productive life”.

Mr Greaney said Doyle had attended university and worked in positions of responsibility. He also started a family.

He adds: “These efforts to rehabilitate himself after a difficult early adulthood only make his actions in Liverpool this May all the more shocking and tragic.”

Doyle was discharged from the Royal Marines after just 22 months of service, the court heard.

Prosecutor Paul Greaney KC said he had received an earlier warning for discharge before the conviction was imposed after the nightclub incident.

Mr Greaney said: “There is no doubt that the defendant was given a 6-month official warning for his military offences. [for discharge].

He adds: “Then on 2 July 1992 came the conviction for an offense contrary to Article 20. [nightclub attack]. “The impact of this conviction led senior officers in the Royal Marines to approve the defendant’s release.”

After being discharged from the Royal Marines, Doyle was sentenced to 12 months in prison after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm.

Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, said a search of the police’s national database showed the offense involved Doyle “biting another man’s ear during a fight” in 1993.

Mr Greaney added: “Interrogated by the police in relation to the current offenses, the defendant disclosed that he had been involved in a drunken brawl with sailors.”

Doyle, who also pleaded guilty to using threatening, abusive and insulting words, was sentenced to prison at Preston Crown Court.

This is the first time we hear that Doyle has both a civilian and military criminal record.

Prosecutor Paul Greaney KC says it all started in 1989 when Doyle committed a military offense tantamount to a common assault and was detained for seven days.

A year later, in 1990, he was fined for dishonesty at Newport Magistrates’ Court.

Later, in 1991, while serving in the Royal Marines, the National Police Computer recorded Doyle “striking another person in the face with a clenched fist on several occasions.”

He pleaded guilty to committing section 20 of the Offenses Against Persons Act and was fined £45 at Exeter Magistrates’ Court.

In an interview with police about the parade incident in Liverpool, Mr Greaney said Doyle said he “got into a fight with men in a nightclub and was thrown out as a result”.

Mr Greaney adds: “The men he was fighting were waiting and he said he had tackled them.”

This had been reported in the months leading up to the trial and it has now been confirmed that Paul Doyle served in the Royal Marines.

Prosecutor Paul Greaney KC said Doyle was drafted into the army at the age of 19 in 1991, after a stint in the Royal Engineers.

However, Doyle was discharged from the Royal Marines in 1993, just 22 months after enlisting.

Doyle appealed the decision but was unsuccessful.

Mr. Greaney says he never went on active service.

Daniel Barr, a former soldier who got into Doyle’s car and forcibly stopped him, said he felt “pulled” and “distracted” by the incident.

The 41-year-old actor, described as a “hero”, said: “I get angry when I go to bed. I don’t even sleep very well. I wake up angry. Big things don’t bother me, but small things do. I get angry easily and I’m slow to hide it.”

He added that he had difficulty completing tasks, could not keep up with conversations, and had difficulty interacting with his family and friends.

“I often feel no purpose and I don’t know what to do, and this happened without fully accepting what happened that day,” he said.

Paul Fitzsimons, like others who have spoken since the incident, said he thought it was a terrorist attack.

In a victim impact statement read out in court this morning, the 50-year-old said: “What I saw that day will never leave me.”

He said he remembered seeing a baby carriage believing the baby was going to die.

“I saw a lot of people on the ground who I thought were dead,” he said.

Mr Fitzsimons said he now regularly had nightmares about a car targeting him.

He said: “My mindset has changed, I’m afraid of things I wasn’t afraid of before and I think about it every day.”

The victim of the 2017 Ariana Grande terror attack in Manchester said the incident had “re-opened emotional wounds” and she now finds it “extremely difficult” to be in crowded places.

Francesca Massey, 24, said: “The latest incident brought back vivid memories of that night – the same overwhelming fear, the moment of silence before the chaos and the desperate rush to escape with the crowd of innocent people around me.

“This is something I felt I had overcome over the last 8 years and now I feel like I am stepping back again as it reawakens earlier trauma.”