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A driver who injured more than 130 people by ploughing his car into a crowd of football fans celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League title in May was jailed for 21-and-a-half years on Tuesday.
Paul Doyle, 54, rammed his minivan through a mass of fans in Liverpool on 26 May and was stopped only after a bystander got in the vehicle and brought it to a halt.
Doyle sobbed during the two-day sentencing as prosecutors detailed the crime, using graphic video footage and reading emotional statements from dozens of victims.
He pleaded guilty last month to 31 counts, including dangerous driving and multiple counts of attempting or causing grievous bodily harm and intentional wounding.
Sentencing Doyle at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Andrew Menary said the footage of the incident was “truly shocking.”
“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,” Menary said.
Prosecutors said Doyle used his vehicle “as a weapon” to ram through the sea of people walking toward him following the victory parade.
Doyle was furious because he couldn’t get where he was going fast enough to pick up a family friend who had attended the parade, according to prosecutor Paul Greaney.
“He was a man in a rage, whose anger had completely taken hold of him,” Greaney said.
“He not only caused injury on a large scale, but he also generated horror in those who had attended what they had thought would be a day of joyfulness.”
Judge Menary dismissed Doyle’s claim of having panicked as “demonstrably untrue”.
Prosecutors spent hours reading out the statements of victims, some still nursing injuries.
One was from a 16-year-old boy who lost his apprenticeship as a woodworker because he was kept awake by nightmares and couldn’t concentrate at work. A 23-year-old man said he had to learn how to walk again. Susan Farrell, a 55-year-old mother, whose daughter was a die-hard Liverpool fan said she could no longer watch matches.
“The sight of red shirts and the sounds of chants are unbearable reminders of that day,” Farrell said.
Additional sources • AP
