Inside the dark past of Liverpool crash driver Paul Doyle – from drunken brawl to biting off a sailor’s ear

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A former Royal Marine who caused chaos and devastation by ploughing his car into crowds of people at Liverpool’s Premier League victory parade this year was jailed three decades ago for biting part of a person’s ear off in a “drunken fight with a sailor”.

Paul Doyle has been described by neighbours as the “perfect family man” and has been painted as an educated person of good character who worked as an IT professional after military service.

But during his sentencing on Tuesday, after the 54-year-old pleaded guilty to 31 charges relating to the mowing down of supporters in May this year, it emerged that Doyle has a criminal past.

In one incident, which he later described to police as a “drunken fight with a sailor”, he bit part of a man’s ear off during a brawl at an M6 service station in Lancashire.

According to a report in the Wigan edition of the Lancashire Evening Post, dated November 1994, Doyle, then aged 23, grappled with his victim on the floor before sinking teeth into his ear and biting the top part off.

After pleading guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm and using threatening behaviour, he was jailed for 12 months at Preston Crown Court.

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Paul Doyle ‘used his vehicle as a weapon’ according to prosecutor Paul Greaney (PA)

Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, told Tuesday’s sentencing hearing: “A search of the police national database reveals that the offences occurred on 2nd July 1993 and involved the defendant biting off the ear of another man in a fight.

“When interviewed by the police in connection with the current offences, the defendant explained that he had become involved in a drunken fight with a sailor.”

Those offences took place after he had been told he was no longer required in the Royal Marines, just 22 months after enlisting, in 1993, said Mr Greaney.

The decision to discharge him came after he was involved in a separate fight in a nightclub in 1991, when Doyle “struck another person several times in the face with a clenched fist”, Mr Greaney said.

Mr Greaney added: “In interview following his arrest in connection with the current offences, the defendant said that he had a scuffle with men in a nightclub which resulted in him being thrown out. The men he had scuffled with were waiting and he got the better of them.”

Doyle had also committed a military offence that equated to assault in 1989 and another offence of violence against a superior officer in 1992, for which he was fined £250.

Mr Greaney said: “It follows that between the ages of 18 and 22, the defendant was convicted of a series of offences, including offences of serious violence.”

After his release from prison in 1995, Doyle settled down in Liverpool, where he earned a university degree, before working in positions of responsibility in the IT sector.

He also started a family and lived in a leafy cul-de-sac in the West Derby suburb of the city.

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The aftermath of the incident, with 134 people injured, some of whom were left with life-changing injuries (PA)

Mr Greaney said: “Those efforts to rehabilitate himself after a difficult early adulthood only serve to make more shocking and tragic what he did in Liverpool that day this May.”

As revealed in the sentencing hearing, Doyle had dropped a friend and his children, who supported Liverpool, in the city centre for the Premier League title-winning parade on 26 May, before returning home.

Around 5.30pm, when the event, which attracted 1 million people, was coming to an end, Doyle texted his friend and set off in his Ford Galaxy.

Horrific dashcam footage from the vehicle showed him driving aggressively into the city centre, running a red light and undertaking several vehicles – an indication, the prosecution said, of his conduct ahead of the fateful events.

On arriving in Dale Street, his driving and behaviour became more erratic. He could be heard saying “f****** move” as he caused pedestrians, including a woman with a pram, to jump out of the vehicle’s way in the packed street.

Reaching Water Street, he pulled out from queuing traffic in the right-hand lane and cut through a gap in the cones left by an ambulance earlier responding to an incident in the street.

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Doyle pleaded guilty to 31 offences (PA)

Mr Greaney said the footage showed Doyle using his vehicle “as a weapon”, hitting terror-stricken pedestrians as he shouted at them to move out of the way.

The impact of one man landing on the bonnet of the vehicle cracked the windscreen.

When Doyle stopped momentarily after hitting the parked ambulance, he was surrounded by people – but still, he managed to jerk forward again, striking more people, including mother Sheree Aldridge and her six-month-old baby Teddy.

It was partly thanks to the brave actions of one supporter, Daniel Barr, who jumped in the back seat of the two-tonne car to put the automatic gear stick into the brake position, that the situation was saved from becoming much worse, Mr Greaney said.