{"id":349091,"date":"2025-12-16T14:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/349091\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T14:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:47:09","slug":"driver-in-liverpool-soccer-parade-ramming-handed-21-year-prison-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/349091\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver in Liverpool soccer parade ramming handed 21 year prison sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

A driver who injured more than 130 people when he ploughed his car into a crowd of soccer fans celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League championship was sentenced to over 20 years in prison Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Paul Doyle rammed his mini-van 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.<\/p>\n

“The footage is truly shocking,” Judge Andrew Menary said as he sentenced Doyle in Liverpool Crown Court.<\/p>\n

“It is difficult if not impossible to convey in words alone the scenes of devastation you caused.<\/p>\n

“It shows you deliberately accelerating into groups of fans, time and time again.”\"Police<\/p>\n

The ramming took place as Liverpool fans crowded streets to catch a glimpse of their victorious team. (AP: Jon Super)<\/p>\n

Doyle, a former Royal Marine, sobbed during the two-day sentencing as prosecutors detailed the crime, using graphic video footage and reading emotional statements from dozens of victims.<\/p>\n

Doyle, 54, pleaded guilty last month to 31 counts<\/a>, including dangerous driving and multiple counts of attempting or causing grievous bodily harm and intentional wounding.<\/p>\n

‘Anger had completely taken hold of’ attacker, prosecution says<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Doyle used his vehicle as a weapon to ram through the sea of people<\/a> walking toward him following the victory parade.<\/p>\n

More than a million people had attended the open-top bus parade through Liverpool’s streets, the prosecution said.<\/p>\n

People who scrambled for safety said they feared a terror attack was unfolding.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The parade was celebrating Liverpool FC’s 2024\/25 season Premier League title win. (Reuters: Phil Noble)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“He was a man in a rage, whose anger had completely taken hold of him,” Mr Greaney said.<\/p>\n

The judge dismissed Doyle’s explanation of having panicked as “demonstrably untrue”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Doyle was placed in a police van, he told officers “I’ve just ruined my family’s life,” Mr Greaney told the court.<\/p>\n

Victims tell of emotional, physical scars<\/p>\n

The impact of Doyle’s attack was far broader than just his family.<\/p>\n

During sentencing, a prosecutor spent hours reading out the statements of victims, some still nursing injuries.<\/p>\n

A 16-year-old boy said he was frequently awakened by nightmares about the event and had lost his apprenticeship as a woodworker because he could not concentrate.<\/p>\n

A 23-year-old man said they had to learn how to walk again, while a woman not from the area said the Liverpool accent now triggered anxiety.<\/p>\n

Another woman whose daughter had been a devoted Liverpool fan could no longer watch its matches.<\/p>\n

“The sight of red shirts and the sounds of chants are unbearable reminders of that day,” Susan Farrell said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ukrainian woman Anna Bilonozhenko, who fled Russia’s invasion and moved to the UK in 2024, said the attack made her feel like she was “losing our safety all over again”.<\/p>\n

AP\/Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A driver who injured more than 130 people when he ploughed his car into a crowd of soccer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[13086,49,48,3208,4445,1417,151806,151807,68968,561,82,10612],"class_list":["post-349091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-attack","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-court","tag-fans","tag-liverpool","tag-paul-doyle","tag-ramming","tag-sentence","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}