Paul Doyle, The Man Who Ploughed A Car Into Liverpool Parade, Set For Sentencing

Last Updated:December 15, 2025, 10:58 IST

Paul Doyle admitted to driving his Ford Galaxy Titanium into Liverpool fans celebrating the Premier League win, injuring 134 people. Sentencing begins Monday.

Liverpool PL title parade (AFP)

The sentencing hearing for a British man who drove his car through crowds of fans celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League victory, injuring over 100 people, is set to begin on Monday.

During his trial in November, Paul Doyle broke down in the dock and dramatically changed his plea, admitting to deliberately driving his car through the crowds in Liverpool city centre in May.

Doyle, who has been in custody since his arrest at the scene, is due to be sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court over two days on Monday and Tuesday.

Last month, he pleaded guilty to 31 criminal charges, including causing grievous bodily harm with intent, wounding with intent, affray, and dangerous driving.

Judge Andrew Menary warned Doyle to prepare for “a custodial sentence of some length".

The maximum sentence for the most serious offences is life imprisonment.

Doyle had initially denied the criminal charges, and prosecutors said he planned to argue that he drove into the crowds after panicking.

However, on the second day of his trial, he unexpectedly pleaded guilty to each of the 31 counts, which relate to 29 victims aged between six months and 77 years old.

The 54-year-old left his home in a Liverpool suburb on May 26 in his Ford Galaxy Titanium, intending to collect a friend who had joined the celebrations for Liverpool’s record-equalling 20th English top-flight title.

In what appears to be an extreme case of road rage, Doyle drove his nearly two-tonne vehicle seemingly indiscriminately into pedestrians over the course of seven minutes, with some victims thrown against the car’s bonnet.

He injured 134 people; although no one was killed, 50 required hospital treatment, according to Merseyside Police.

His youngest victim was a six-month-old baby who was flung from his pram but miraculously escaped unhurt.

Police quickly declared that the incident was not terrorism. However, the circumstances of the alleged attack remained largely unclear until the trial.

The prosecution intended to show dashcam footage of Doyle losing his temper, swearing, and blasting his horn at pedestrians as he grew angry at their presence on the roads.

“Rather than wait for them to pass, he deliberately drove at them, forcing his way through," Sarah Hammond from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said after Doyle entered the guilty pleas.

“This was not a momentary lapse by Paul Doyle — it was a choice he made that day and it turned celebration into mayhem."

After hitting the first victims, he continued down another street and struck more people, reversing at one point and colliding with others as well as an ambulance.

The car finally stopped after several people, including children, became trapped beneath it and a pedestrian jumped inside for the final 16 seconds of its ill-fated journey, according to prosecutors.

A man who got in the vehicle pushed the gear into park, helping to bring it to a stop.

Onlookers described scenes of carnage, including hearing the car drive over people and seeing scores of victims lying on the street.

Merseyside Police Detective Chief Inspector John Fitzgerald said it was “hard to forget the shocking scenes from that day".

It was “only by sheer luck that nobody was killed because of Doyle’s reckless actions", he added.

Doyle briefly joined the Royal Marines after school, later working in IT and cyber security, according to media reports.

People who knew him described him to UK media as a “family-man" interested in fitness and well-liked by his neighbours.

He was registered as the owner of a headwear business, FarOut Caps, and appeared to use the company’s social media account to post about cryptocurrency and video games.

(With agency inputs)

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