Paul Doyle pleaded guilty Wednesday to 31 counts that he intentionally drove into a crowd of people celebrating the Liverpool FC soccer club winning the Premier League in May, injuring more than 130 people, including two babies. File Photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA
Nov. 26 (UPI) — A former British Royal Marine pleaded guilty to injuring dozens of people, including children and babies, after driving his car into a crowd of people at a soccer victory parade.
Paul Doyle, 54, on the first day of his trial, changed his initial pleas in 31 charges linked to driving his Ford Galaxy Titanium into a crowd of people celebrating the Liverpool FC soccer club’s Premier League title in May.
More than 130 injuries were reported after Doyle accelerated into the parade crowd, sending bodies flying off his car — two of whom were babies aged six and seven months — according to The Guardian.
On Wednesday, shocking the court, Doyle reversed his not guilty pleas entered the day before, answering guilty to all 31 charges, the BBC reported.
The charges include dangerous driving, causing grievous bodily harm with intent, wounding with intent and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm, prosecutors said.
“By entering guilty pleas, Doyle has finally accepted that he intentionally drove into crowds of innocent people during Liverpool FC’s victory parade,” Sarah Hammond, chief prosecutor on the case for the Crown Prosecution Service, during the court proceedings. “Driving a vehicle into a crowd is an act of calculated violence.”
“This was not a momentary lapse by Paul Doyle — it was a choice he made that day and it turned celebration into mayhem,” she said, noting that dashcam footage from his car showed that he had become “increasingly agitated by the crowds.”
Doyle, on May 26, drove down the street where the celebration was happening, and which had been closed to non-emergency vehicles, on the way to pick up friends, but lost his patience with the crowd, accelerating rapidly into it.
Although people in the celebration tried to pull him out of the car before he actually hit people — he initially claimed he was scared for his safety and pleaded innocent to intentionally ramming parade-goers — police said 134 people were injured in the melee and more than 50 people required hospitalization.
Doyle was initially charged with seven counts related to six people, prosecutors added another 24 charges in August based on some victims he had hit that were aged between six months and 77 years old after he intentionally drove his car into the crowd of soccer fans.
With the guilty pleas, Judge Andrew Menary KC will now consider Doyle’s sentence based on harm caused, the defendant himself and the effects of the crime on the community, which prosecutors have portrayed as significant.
The maximum sentence for the charges, according to the BBC, is life in prison.
“It is inevitable there will be a custodial sentence of some length and you should prepare yourself for that inevitability,” Menary told Doyle.
Sentencing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 15 and 16.
