‘It left emotional scars on our family’ – read victims’ statements

Liverpool supporters who were injured when Paul Doyle drove his car through crowds at the team’s victory parade have spoken about their experiences from that day.

Before Doyle, 54, was jailed for 21 years and six months for charges including dangerous driving and causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, Liverpool Crown Court heard statements from his victims.

One statement after another, the court heard about the psychological and physical impact of that day.

One of the most shocking was from Ian Passey, 47, who described the moment he saw his 77-year-old mother pinned beneath Doyle’s car, her head “in a pool of blood”.

Another, the mother of an 11-year-old boy who was trapped beneath the wheels of the car, told the court the collision “didn’t just injure his body, it left emotional scars on our entire family”.

Footage of the moment he was freed by emergency service personnel was shown to the court on Monday.

Prosecution barrister Philip Astbury read the statement from his mother, which said: “My son is only a young child, with his whole life ahead of him.

“There are good days and bad days. On the good days we try to hold on to hope. But the bad days are heavy – filled with fear, anxiety and sadness.”

She said her son has become scared of cars since the attack.

“He’s also become self-conscious about the scar on his face,” she said.

“He worries what people will think when they see it. He asks me if people will laugh at the bald patch on the left side of his head.

“As a mother it breaks my heart to see him question his appearance and fear being judged or bullied.

“The nightmares are the worst. He wakes up crying, reliving the incident.

“And it’s not just him, we all do.”

A total of 78 people submitted victim personal statements to the court, in which they described how the “best day ever” soon became the worst.

One mother told the court how a pram with her six-month-old baby inside was struck by Doyle’s Ford Galaxy.

She said: “I relive the moment of the collision repeatedly, especially the terrifying image of my pram being struck and taken by the car with my six-month-old baby inside.

“The horror of not knowing whether he was alive or dead in that instant will haunt me forever.”

Doyle was seen to cry as Mr Astbury read the words of one of his victims, a 12-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The boy said: “I found myself on the floor having been hit by a car I did not see coming, I have never felt so scared before in my life.”

The boy’s mother said she saw her son motionless on the floor and her heart sank.

She said the incident “caused me much anxiety having to watch my son deal with the pain, the frustration, him feeling down and isolated from his friends in school, the nightmares and the after-effects on him”.

As the statements were read to court on Monday and Tuesday, one was from a woman telling Doyle to take responsibility for what he had done.

Susan Farrell, 55, addressed Doyle directly, confronting him about the tears he had been seen to shed during court proceedings.

Speaking on behalf of herself and her 62-year-old husband Colin Farrell, she said: “There are hundreds of people affected by your actions. I want you to think about them all.

“Don’t sit in the dock and cry for yourself. Be brave and take accountability for what you did.”

The court heard from Anna Bilonozhenko, 43, who came to the UK from Ukraine in 2024, to escape the war.

She said she thought spending the day at the parade with her 22-year-old daughter Sasha would “lift our spirits”.

Instead she was left with an injury that required metal plates to be inserted into her leg.

Ms Bilonozhenko said: “We came to this country because of the war in our homeland, hoping to finally feel safe. At first, we did.

“But now that feeling has been taken away.

“Realising that is deeply painful – it feels like losing our safety all over again.”

John Davey, 31, said after the events of 26 May, “the joy of football, the joy of family outings, the joy of living freely – all of it has been taken from me.”

He said: “The collision left me with spinal fractures in three places. Since then, the pain has been relentless, day and night.

“I cannot work, which means I cannot provide for my family. I have three children, and the weight of responsibility has fallen on my partner.

“That has left me feeling ashamed, embarrassed, and broken – because it is not fair that they must suffer for what happened to me.”

He added: “This incident has stolen my independence, my happiness, and my peace of mind.

“It has changed me forever, and it has changed my family’s life forever.”

A 16-year-old boy described feeling “scared, angry and sad”.

The boy said: “I sometimes think that things could have been a lot worse and that frightens me, but equally the incident should never have happened, and that’s why I find it hard to accept and move on with my life.

“This is just not fair to have to cope with all this at my age.”

I should have been able to protect my younger sister and my niece.”

Meanwhile Amanda Gardener, 52, described her feelings of “guilt” after the attack.

“My sister didn’t really want to go [to the Liverpool FC victory parade] but I convinced them it would be a good day,” she wrote.

“I then saw my sister go flying into the air.

“We lost our sister last year; I thought I was losing another and thought I was going to have tell her family that she had died.”

Ian Passey said he got up from the ground after being hit by Doyle’s car to realise he had lost sight of his mother.

He said he found her pinned under the car in a pool of blood.

He said in a statement: “Not being able to get close to her, hold her hand and reassure her, I feared the worst.

“I thought my mum had been killed, and called my brother on the telephone to tell him just that.”

He said he still had vivid nightmares and was unable to go into large crowds.

He said: “The actions on May 26 of one man will change mine and mum’s life forever.”

Doyle, of Burghill Road in West Derby, admitted a total of 31 charges last month.

The court heard how he “lost his temper” and drove his car directly into supporters making their way home from the Premier League title celebrations.

Dashcam footage from the vehicle, played in court, showed the shocking moments when fans were thrown onto the bonnet of the car or fell underneath it as he accelerated down Water Street, which had been closed to traffic, at about 18:00 BST on 26 May.

Doyle had denied the charges but changed his plea to guilty at the start of his trial.

The former Royal Marine admitted 31 charges including causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, dangerous driving and affray, with victims aged between six months and 77 years.