Driver who rammed into Liverpool parade crowd gets 21 years in prison

LONDON (AP) — 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 sentenced to 21 years and six months in prison on Tuesday.

Paul Doyle rammed his minivan through a sea of fans on May 26 and halted after a bystander got in the vehicle and forced it into park. It came to a stop atop bodies.

“The footage is truly shocking,” Judge Andrew Menary said in Liverpool Crown Court. “It is difficult if not impossible to convey in words alone the scenes of devastation you caused. It shows you deliberately accelerating into groups of fans, time and time again.”

Doyle sobbed during the two-day sentencing as prosecutors detailed the crime, using graphic video footage and reading emotional statements from dozens of victims.

Doyle, 54, pleaded guilty last month to 31 counts, including dangerous driving and multiple counts of attempting or causing grievous bodily harm and intentional wounding.

Prosecutors said Doyle used his vehicle as a weapon to ram through the sea of people walking toward him following the victory parade.

People who scrambled for safety said they feared a terror attack was unfolding.

But the explanation was “as simple as the consequences were awful,” prosecutor Paul Greaney said. Doyle flew into a fury because he couldn’t get where he was going fast enough to pick up a family friend who had attended the parade.

“He was a man in a rage, whose anger had completely taken hold of him,” Greaney said.

The judge dismissed Doyle’s explanation of having panicked as “demonstrably untrue.”

When Doyle was placed in a police van, he said: “I’ve just ruined my family’s life,” Greaney said.

The impact was far broader.

A prosecutor spent hours reading out the statements of victims, some still nursing injuries.

A 16-year-old boy kept awake by nightmares lost his apprenticeship as a woodworker because he couldn’t concentrate. A 23-year-old man had to learn how to walk again. A woman not from the area said the Liverpool accent now triggers anxiety. A woman whose daughter was a die-hard Liverpool fan could no longer watch its matches.

“The sight of red shirts and the sounds of chants are unbearable reminders of that day,” Susan Farrell said.