A former Royal Marine has admitted to driving into a crowd of fans celebrating Liverpool’s Premier League victory, initially claiming he was fleeing from an alleged knife-wielding assailant. This explanation has since been debunked as the truth behind Paul Doyle’s reckless actions comes to light.
Details of Doyle’s seven-minute rampage have emerged, painting a picture of chaos and fear. The panic was so intense that many witnesses thought they were experiencing a terrorist attack. The ordeal concluded when a courageous fan intervened, seizing the gearstick of Doyle’s nearly two-ton Ford Galaxy, and bringing the vehicle to a stop.
Following a dramatic change in his legal strategy, the 54-year-old father of three confessed to all 31 charges against him on the second day of his trial at Liverpool Crown Court. This admission came as prosecutors were gearing up to argue that Doyle had used his car as a weapon in a fit of rage while navigating through the celebratory crowds.
Dashcam footage intended for presentation to the jury reveals Doyle’s aggressive behavior, capturing him repeatedly cursing at fans who were walking on the road. With these revelations, Doyle now faces the possibility of a life sentence for his actions during that fateful night.
Prosecutors are understood to have been planning to argue that Doyle – who now faces a potential life sentence – used his car as a ‘weapon’ after flying into a rage as he attempted to drive through crowds.
Harrowing dashcam footage which was to have been shown to the jury shows him repeatedly swearing at supporters walking in the road.
He was sober and not under the influence of drugs at the time, and tests of his Ford Galaxy found no defects which could have explained the carnage which unfolded, it is understood.
Doyle was not motivated by any ideology, prosecutors had been expected to tell jurors.
Paul Doyle was told he faces jail after driving his car into crowds at the Liverpool victory parade
Emergency services at the scene of the incident on Water Street. More than 130 people were injured, police later said
After the terrifying attack which left 134 people injured, 29 seriously, Doyle falsely told police he had panicked after a man he believed to be armed with a knife tried to open his door.
He lied to officers that he only stopped when he realised he had struck pedestrians.
Astonishingly, considering the reckless and near-fatal violence which was to follow, Doyle was only in Liverpool city centre on May 26 because he had agreed to pick up family friends after the parade – having dropped them off there earlier.
Damning evidence of his guilt came in the form of his dashcam which recorded both video and audio of all his journeys on the six-mile route from his home in Croxteth that day.
It revealed how his driving had already become aggressive even before he encountered fans in the road.
Doyle undertook other cars and ran a red light as he drove the 25-minute journey from his home to Liverpool city centre.
Then as he found his sensible people carrier – in fact registered to his wife – blocked in by thousands of fans, Doyle took advantage of supporters moving cones to allow an ambulance through.
Within moments of the seven-year-old £12,000 car entering Water Street, Doyle began accelerating, knocking dozens of people over like skittles, horrified witnesses said.
An artist’s sketch of Paul Doyle after he appeared in court yesterday
Pictured: Paul Doyle who was seen driving the car in Liverpool on May 26 2025
Some fans were sent flying while others were trapped beneath its wheels.
As people screamed in panic, the car finally came to a halt, before it was rushed by dozens fans, trying to get to Doyle in the driver’s seat.
Some were shouting: ‘F****** kill him!’
Police officers managed to intervene and Doyle was bundled into a nearby police van for his own safety and arrested.
When he was interviewed, Doyle falsely told police he had been in fear after a man he believed to be armed with a knife tried to open his door.
He claimed he had been driving slowly through the crowds when someone smashed his car window, leaving him terrified that the knifeman had followed him and that he was going to be stabbed.
Doyle insisted he panicked and tried to drive away, only stopping when he realised he had struck pedestrians.
However the ‘knifeman’ was entirely fictitious, and exhaustive analysis of harrowing CCTV footage spelt out the carnage he had in fact inflicted.
In reality, the attack was only ended when a supporter bravely got inside Doyle’s car, which had an automatic gearbox.
The man reached over to put it into ‘park’, finally bringing the two-tonne vehicle to a halt.
Doyle’s attack was in fact a grotesque and inexplicable piece of road rage, prosecutors would have argued had the trial gone ahead.
The truth, it is understood they would have alleged, was that he was prepared to cause serious harm to men, women and children in order to get through.
Doyle, of Croxteth, Liverpool, appeared inconsolable and gasped repeatedly as the counts he faced were read out by the court clerk one by one.
Doyle’s voice shook and he could scarcely utter the word ‘guilty’ as he confirmed he was changing his plea on each count.
Afterwards, he sat slumped in his seat in the dock.
Judge Andrew Menary KC, The Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, told Doyle that a ‘custodial sentence of some length’ was plainly ‘inevitable’ when he is sentenced next month.
