Dashcam footage from Paul Doyle’s car shown in court captured his expletive-ridden rant as he ploughed into fans at the Liverpool FC victory parade, leaving over 130 injured
Victims of the Liverpool parade carnage gasped and wept as horrific footage of Paul Doyle’s rage-fuelled rampage was played in court.
Footage from Doyle’s own dashcam showed him accelerating through the crowds blaring his horn while screaming “get out of the f***ing way” and “f***ing p***ks”. Bodies were flung onto the bonnet, smashing into the windscreen as he ploughed through a sea of people. Others were dragged under the wheels or sent tumbling down the road after the 54-year-old “lost his temper” during seven minutes of mayhem.
Liverpool Crown Court was told Doyle “intended to cause serious harm” when he drove into more than 100 fans after the parade on May 26. The footage, from inside his Ford Galaxy, captured dad-of-three Doyle swerving into fans making their way back from the Premier League victory celebration.
Doyle, who admitted 31 offences related to the crash at the same court last month, had been heading into the city centre from his home in Croxteth to collect friends. As the footage was shown Doyle closed his eyes and put his head down crying – with victims in court also in tears.
The shocking footage showed Doyle driving down Dale Street and into Water Street – all heaving with tens of thousands of Liverpool fans. Doyle could be heard blaring his horn and shouting “f***ing p****s” as pedestrians dived in all directions, many pulling their children out of the way.
The footage – which prosecutors will not release due to its graphic nature – shows the windscreen smashing as man lands on it. Others fans are seen on the bonnet of the car as Doyle accelerates. Several, including children, get dragged under the wheels,
Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, said Doyle’s vehicle weighed nearly two tonnes. The road was extremely busy with pedestrians on what should have been a “day of joy”.
He said: “The defendant drove the Galaxy on to Dale Street at 5.54pm and began to travel in the direction of Water Street, so on a course opposite from the direction of travel of most of the fans, and towards them. From an early stage, Paul Doyle drove dangerously along that road, frightening people as he did so. Then at 5.59pm, he encountered some traffic implementation measures that were filtering vehicles off to the right.
“He came to a halt, but shortly afterwards set off down the left side of Dale Street towards Water Street, ignoring the measures.” He said Doyle’s actions “generated horror in those who had attended what they had thought would be a day of joyfulness”.
He said: “By 6.01pm, so less than two minutes later, the Galaxy was stationary on Water Street and attempts were being made by fans to drag Paul Doyle from it.
“He was quickly protected by police officers, and thereafter arrested and detained, having sustained only minor injuries. What had happened in that short period between 5.59pm and 6.01pm is that the defendant had driven his vehicle into a collision with well over 100 people, causing injuries including serious injuries to many and, when the vehicle was brought to a halt, people including children were trapped beneath it.
“The prosecution case is that the defendant had used the vehicle as a weapon over that period of time. In doing so, he not only caused injury on a large scale, but also generated horror in those who had attended what they had thought would be a day of joyfulness.”
Mr Greaney told the court that Doyle was not driven by ideology, adding: “This was, it should be categorically stated, not a terrorist attack.” He said police had excluded any problem with the vehicle and Doyle was “completely sober and free of all drugs”.
When interviewed, he said, Doyle claimed he acted in a “blind panic and in fear of his life”. The prosecution said that account was “untrue”. Mr Greaney said: “The truth is a simple one – Paul Doyle just lost his temper in his desire to get to where he wanted to get to. In a rage, he drove into the crowd. When he did so, he intended to cause people within the crowd serious harm.
“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 that day were awful.”
Mr Greaney said that as Doyle’s vehicle entered Dale Street, an ambulance was ahead of him, trying to reach a member of the public who had collapsed with a suspected cardiac arrest. Someone moved some traffic cones so the ambulance could drive to the left of the queueing traffic, and Doyle drove through the same gap a short time later.
“’The strong sense from the dashcam footage is that the defendant regarded himself as the most important person on Dale Street, and considered that everyone else needed to get out of his way so that he could get to where he wanted to get to, he said.
Mr Greaney said Doyle was “starting to lose his temper” as he encountered a number of people walking in the road. Doyle can be heard on dashcam footage shouting: “It’s a f****** road”.
He said: “Members of the crowd become extremely concerned by his behaviour. Adults jumped out of his way. Parents dragged their children from his path. The defendant shouted, ‘f****** p****s’ a number of times. He had completely lost his temper.
“The defendant’s driving was highly dangerous. Furthermore, in what he did, he was using or threatening unlawful violence towards the crowd and his conduct was such as would cause any normal person to fear for their personal safety. We can see that in their faces.
“The defendant then used his vehicle as a weapon as he veered to the left of the traffic implementations and drove down Dale Street and onto Water Street, driving into and over more than 100 people as he did so, causing many people injuries.”
One of the most shocking parts of the footage showed Doyle hitting a 10-year-old girl and shouting “f***ing hell, move”, the court heard. One woman was struck while pushing her five-month-old son in a pram, causing the pram to be thrown into the air, yet Doyle “drove on regardless”.
The court heard Doyle was stopped after a brave fan, Daniel Barr, jumped into the back of the car and placed the vehicle into park. Mr Barr had “instinctively pulled open the rear passenger-side door and climbed in. He did so with the intention of stopping the driver”. He leaned forward and moved the gear into “park” and “held it as hard as he could”.
Mr Greaney added: “The Galaxy did not stop immediately, but in the end it did. However, Daniel Barr describes how even after he had brought the vehicle to a halt, the defendant continued to keep his foot on the accelerator.”
Doyle claimed when interviewed he had stopped his car as soon as he realised he had struck someone, but Mr Greaney said this was untrue. He told the court: “The defendant could not have failed to see that he had struck very many people on his journey down Dale Street and Water Street, stopping to reverse and then drive forward a number of times.
“In any event, what brought the Galaxy to a halt was a combination of the number of people trapped beneath the vehicle and the actions of Daniel Barr, not the decision of Paul Doyle – on the contrary, as we have explained, even with people beneath his vehicle, Paul Doyle tried to drive on.”
Mr Kearney added: ‘By the time his vehicle was brought to a halt, the defendant had driven it into a collision with over one hundred people. Some of them had sustained wounds or grievous bodily harm.
“Others sustained some injury, but, through good fortune, not serious injury. Others narrowly avoided injury altogether by jumping out of the way of the oncoming vehicle, or by being dragged out of the way. Very many were placed into a state of terror.”
Mr Greaney said: “The crowd was, as we’ve seen, unsurprisingly highly hostile towards Paul Doyle by the time his vehicle was brought to a stop and they attempted to drag him out of the Galaxy. Blows were delivered to him, and he sustained some minor injuries. Police officers intervened and they forced him into a nearby police van in the midst of that hostile crowd.
“What they, the police officers, did was brave and effective and in due course, we will invite the court to recognise the commitment of the emergency services as a whole that afternoon. In the back of the van, captured on the body worn camera of one of the officers at 6.17pm, Paul Doyle said, ‘I’ve just ruined my family’s life’.”
Doyle’s sentencing is expected to conclude on Tuesday. He has been warned to expect a significant custodial sentence.
