Tears, hurt and hope: Inside the emotional sentencing of Liverpool parade attacker Paul Doyle
“What we are about to show on the screens is truly shocking,” warned prosecutor Paul Greaney KC. A moment of silence fell and all eyes turned to the flat-screen televisions displayed in courtroom 4 of Liverpool Crown Court.
For months they had relived the harrowing ordeal of the Liverpool parade tragedy in nightmares and flashbacks. Now Paul Doyle’s victims were about to witness this destruction again.
What was shown was only 140 seconds, but that was enough.
Starting in Liverpool city centre, dashcam footage from Doyle’s Ford Galaxy first appeared to show Doyle driving aggressively and dangerously towards the stream of fans leaving the victory parade. At one point, a person dragged a child off the front of the 1.9-tonne car, leaving some people on site gasping for air.
But then, as everyone in the courtroom knew, including me, it got worse.
After Doyle decided to leave the traffic queue and drive through a gap between traffic cones, footage showed him accelerating into the heart of the crowd, hitting everyone young and old who couldn’t get out of his way.
Panic screams from the fans were heard. Some jumped onto the hood, the terror on their faces clearly visible in the footage. Others were seen thrown to the ground as a result of being hit by the car.
Shockingly, a 10-year-old girl was shot while Doyle was heard shouting “Damn it, move”. A few seconds later, a stroller with a five-month-old baby inside crashed.
In the courtroom, eyes seemed to get wider every time someone was hit. Some found the graphic images too difficult to watch and chose to look away. Others cried. Doyle was seen on the dock in tears, her head bowed.
In the press gallery, seasoned journalists with more than a century of court reporting experience between them took deep breaths when the disturbing images finally ended.
Because it was so violent and so upsetting, it was decided to keep it completely public, and for good reason.
However, the court, including Judge Andrew Menary KC, had to be shown the footage to understand the extent of the crime committed by Doyle, who was faced with overwhelming evidence and decided to plead guilty to 31 charges on the second day of his trial.
Judge Menary then summarized what happened in his sentencing.
“You hit people head-on, knocked others onto bonnets, ran over limbs, crushed strollers and forced those nearby to scatter in terror,” he said. “You advanced quickly and for a considerable distance, violently pushing people aside or simply running over them.
“Person after person.”
On a harrowing first day of sentencing, the court was shown more clips, including mobile phone footage and security cameras, leaving no doubt in the minds of those present about the level of devastation Doyle had caused.
One episode showed a baby being plucked from an upside-down stroller and miraculously surviving unhurt, while another showed a young boy being pulled from under the front of the stroller. The bodies lay across the road.
Victims then had the opportunity to be heard.
More than 70 of the 134 people injured wrote impact statements describing their physical and psychological injuries. Although many of them healed from the wounds on their bodies, the impact on their mental health was permanent.
Heartbreaking stories of nightmares, flashbacks, panic attacks and diminished self-confidence were bravely shared in the courtroom. The victims included a woman fleeing war in Ukraine and the victim of the Manchester Arena terror attack in 2017.
A woman writing on behalf of herself and her husband addressed Doyle directly in her statement. He said: “Don’t sit in the club crying for yourself. Be brave and take responsibility for your actions.”
Later, when Doyle was sentenced on Tuesday, many of the victims held on to each other before whispering cheers as his prison sentence ended. “Justice for the victims,” the mother of one-year-old victim Teddy Eveson told me later.
Finally, after hours of evidence regarding Doyle’s actions, Judge Menary said former soldier Daniel Barr showed “extraordinarily brave” actions to stop Doyle’s car by jumping into the back seat and moving the gear lever to “park”.
“Is Mr. Barr here?” the Judge asked, before the 41-year-old man stood up and was warmly embraced by some of those around him at the end of the case. he asked.
Less than seven months ago, when I arrived downtown the morning after the incident, I was greeted by the apocalyptic sight of a deserted road covered with debris from the massacre less than 24 hours earlier.
When I returned for sentencing this week, I heard hope from the victims that they could move forward after Doyle’s sentence. However, I have no doubt that those who were involved in these events will never forget the horror of May 26, 2025.
