A man who knew Doyle from a church football team claimed he would “explosively react if he was not happy”
Paul Doyle was sentenced to 21 years and six months in prison(Image: Merseyside Police)
A man who used to be part of the same football team as parade crash criminal Paul Doyle claimed he “knocked a man out cold” for joking about his work at McDonald’s. The man, who has asked not to be named, told the ECHO he was part of the Liverpool Christian Life Centre’s football team in the mid-1990s and recalled the duality of Doyle – at times a “lovely man” and at others a “monster”.
Our source said the football team was not exclusively for people from the church and Doyle became involved because he was living with two people who regularly attended. The man said Doyle was a “brilliant goalkeeper” but everyone involved with the team were “actively aware of his struggles”.
He said: “[Doyle] would explosively react if he was not happy. There were times when the game had to be called off and we had to apologise to the other team.” The man added: “On one occasion, I wasn’t there, but I heard a guy who was part of the church made a joke.
“I don’t know if Paul was still studying at the time, but he was working as a manager at McDonald’s. The guy wasn’t having a go at him, he was just messing around, but I heard that Paul knocked him out cold. I was shocked. I felt responsibility and spoke to the guy and had to really apologise.”
Doyle was jailed for 21 years and six months at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday after he ploughed his two-tonne Ford Galaxy into crowds of LFC fans during May’s title-winning parade celebrations. The court heard Doyle used his car as a “weapon” when “in a rage” because of the number of people in the road.
The ECHO previously revealed how Doyle exaggerated his military service in the Royal Marines. And during his two-day sentencing hearing it was revealed Doyle was kicked out of the specialist commando unit just 22 months after enlisting because of a series of violent altercations, including with his superior officer.
He received both civilian and military convictions for offences including common assault and dishonesty. While stationed at the commando training centre in Lympstone he punched another person several times in the face in a “nightclub scuffle”.
But the bombshell conviction was Doyle’s offence of causing grievous bodily harm following a devastatingly violent incident. The court heard: “The offences occurred on the 2nd of July 1993 and involved the defendant biting off the ear of another man in a fight.
“When interviewed by the police in connection with the current offences, the defendant explained that he had become involved in a drunken fight with sailors.” Doyle, who was in the Royal Marines Reserve at the time of the offence, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment.
Paul Doyle (Image: Facebook/Liverpool Echo)
Liverpool Crown Court heard Doyle’s previous convictions were all between the ages of 18 and 22. Following his release from prison in 1994 Doyle was said to have undergone a transformation, enrolling at the University of Liverpool to study psychology and maths, before beginning a successful cyber security career in 1999.
The ECHO understands shortly after he finished his university degree Doyle worked briefly at the American fast food chain as a graduate manager.
The man who knew Doyle back in the 1990s said: “We knew about his early years. The fact he had major, major problems. They became our problems as well when he started to come to the church. But we also saw the other side of him.
“I regularly saw a really nice man. It’s so sad that there was such a lovely man there, but also a monster as well. I felt a responsibility for him at the time. I always knew I was out of my depth. When I saw the news and saw it was Paul, it was a worst case scenario.”
He added: “He can’t change what he did. He’s made a huge mistake that he now has to live with.”
Despite his propensity for violence in the 1990s, Doyle stayed out of trouble with the authorities for over 30 years. He married, had three children and lived a blameless life, focusing on fitness and his IT career. Doyle’s neighbours who spoke to the ECHO referred to him as “Mr Healthy Dude”.
One neighbour said: “He meditates, doesn’t drink and he would go out on the grass outside in his bare feet to ground himself. He was a fit guy. He hasn’t drunk for as long as I have known him.”
Other neighbours on Burghill Road, the smart, leafy cul-de-sac where Doyle lived, recalled him as a “family man, a really good neighbour, a friendly guy”. How those who knew Doyle remember him will provide little comfort to the 134 men, women and children he ploughed into on the day of the parade.
CCTV footage of the moment Paul Doyle ploughed into crowds on Water Street(Image: Merseyside Police)
Paul Greaney KC, for the prosecution, told the court that Doyle had “taken steps to live a positive and productive life” after his release from prison. He added: “Those efforts to rehabilitate himself after a difficult early adulthood only serve to make more shocking, and tragic what he did in Liverpool that day this May.”
The court heard Doyle was not motivated by an extremist ideology, nor was he drunk or high on drugs, and his car was in good working condition. Mr Greaney instead said Doyle had simply “lost his temper in his desire to get to where he wanted to get to”.
He added: “He was prepared to cause those in the crowd, even children, serious harm if necessary to achieve his aim of getting through. The truth is as simple as the consequences were awful.”
Doyle’s own dashcam provided the most damning evidence against him. The footage, too graphic to show to the public, showed Doyle shouting “f***ing move” as he drove into the crowds on Water Street. People were thrown into the air after being hit by his car, while others went under the front bumper.
Paul Doyle sobs at Liverpool Crown Court(Image: Elizabeth Cook/PA Wire)
His car only came to a stop after heroic former soldier Daniel Barr managed to jump into the back seat of the Ford Galaxy and move the automatic vehicle into “park” mode.
The Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC said: “The footage is truly shocking. It is difficult, if not impossible, to convey in words alone the scene of devastation you caused. It shows you quite deliberately accelerating into groups of fans time and time again.
“You struck people head-on, knocked others onto the bonnet, drove over limbs, crushed prams and forced those nearby to scatter in terror. You ploughed on, at speed and over a considerable distance, violently knocking people aside or simply driving over them, person after person after person.
“You accelerated forwards and backwards repeatedly. Several victims became trapped beneath the vehicle as you continued to move it. Others were thrown into the air or propelled across the ground. A number of witnesses, including serving police officers, describe you continuing to press the accelerator, even when people were visibly underneath the car. Your shouted expressions of frustration underline your state of mind at the time, not fear or panic but an inexplicable and undiluted fury.”
Police bodycam footage of Paul Doyle being taken to the custody suite after his arrest(Image: PA)
The judge added: “It is almost impossible to comprehend how any right-thinking person could act as you did. To drive a vehicle into crowds of pedestrians with such persistence and disregard for human life defies ordinary understanding.”
Specialist prosecutor James Allison, of CPS Mersey Cheshire’s complex casework unit, said: “In seven minutes of dangerous driving, Doyle, a middle-aged family man, used that vehicle as a weapon hitting more than one hundred people, including children, babies and the elderly. When it eventually ended, he had trapped some of them underneath his vehicle.
“He not only injured many people, but he also generated horror and chaos on what was meant to be a day of celebration and joyfulness. The reason why he did it? The truth is as simple as it is awful, Paul Doyle lost his temper and, in a rage, drove into people, intending to cause them serious harm.”
Merseyside Police senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector John Fitzgerald added: “On what should have been a day of celebration for the city, Doyle chose to act in an aggressive and dangerous manner with no regard for the safety and wellbeing of other people.
“No prison sentence will be able to undo his actions on that day or heal those who continue to suffer physically and psychologically as a result of what they endured and witnessed on the streets of the city.”