Paul Doyle Sentencing – how did the Judge decide on sentence?

We take a deeper look at the sentencing of Paul Doyle and how the principle of totality applies when sentencing defendants for multiple offences.

Paul Doyle drove his car into crowds of people at Liverpool FC’s Premier League victory parade on 26 May 2025.

He was charged with the following offences:

• 1 x Dangerous Driving
• 9 x Causing Grievous Bodily Harm with Intent (Section 18 Assault)
• 17 x Attempting to Cause Grievous Bodily Harm
• 3 x Wounding with Intent (Section 20 Assault)
• 1 x Affray

Doyle pleaded not guilty to all the counts, and the case proceeded to trial. On the second day of the trial, he changed his plea to guilty. After a two-day sentencing hearing at Liverpool Crown Court, on Monday and Tuesday of this week today (15th and 16 December 2025) he was sentenced to 21 years and six months in prison.

He was also disqualified from driving for a period that includes three years after his possible release date from prison.

The judge acknowledged that the sentence he was about to pass would have a “devastating” impact but said its length was proportionate given the “gravity” of the offences.

Judge Menary told Doyle as he sentenced him:

“It is difficult, if not impossible, to convey in words alone the scene of devastation you caused.

“It shows you, quite deliberately, accelerating into groups of fans time and time again.

“You struck people head-on, knocked others onto the bonnet, drove over limbs, crushed prams and forced those nearby to scatter in terror.”

“You ploughed on at speed and over a considerable distance, violently knocking people aside or simply driving over them – person, after person, after person.

“You accelerated forwards and backwards repeatedly, several victims became trapped beneath the vehicle as you continued to move it.

“Others were thrown into the air or propelled across the ground.”

So how did the Judge arrive at this sentence?

The Judge broke down the sentence as follows:

• 21 years and 6 months on each of the section 18 grievous bodily harm and wounding offences
• 16 years on each of the attempted section 18 assault offences
• 20 months on each of the affray and dangerous driving offences

Each of these sentences was ordered to run concurrently. This means the sentences are all to be served at the same time and therefore the total length of sentence is 21 years and six months.

Totality

The principle of totality applies when sentencing an offender for multiple offences as was the case here.

 This means the overall sentence should:

• reflect all of the offending behaviour with reference to overall harm and culpability, together with the aggravating and mitigating factors relating to the offences and those personal to the offender; and
• be just and proportionate.

Sentences can be structured as ‘concurrent’ (to be served at the same time) or ‘consecutive’ (to be served one after the other).  In this case the sentences were concurrent.

If consecutive, it is usually impossible to arrive at a just and proportionate sentence simply by adding together single sentences. Ordinarily, some downward adjustment is required.

If concurrent, it will often be the case that the sentence on any single offence will not adequately reflect the overall offending. Ordinarily, some upward adjustment is required.

The general approach is as follows:

• Consider the sentence for each individual offence, referring to the relevant sentencing guidelines.
• Determine whether the case calls for concurrent or consecutive sentences.
• Test the overall sentence against the requirement that the total sentence is just and proportionate to the offending.
• Consider and explain how the sentence is structured in a way so it is best understood by all concerned.

What are Sentencing Guidelines?

The Sentencing Council is a body responsible for developing sentencing guidelines which the courts must use when passing a sentence. Different offences have specific sentencing guidelines which help judges come to sentences by considering culpability and harm as well as aggravating and mitigating features of the offences.

As an example, for the grievous bodily harm offences, the court should determine the offence category first by assessing culpability and harm. For this offence, there are high, medium, and low levels of culpability. In relation to harm, the guideline states that all cases will involve ‘really serious harm’, which can be physical or psychological, or wounding. The court should assess the level of harm caused with reference to the impact on the victim.

The court should then use the starting point in the guideline to reach a sentence within the category range. The starting point applies to all offenders irrespective of plea or previous convictions.

The court should then go on to consider additional features of the offence and factors relating to the offender, which could result in a further upward or downward adjustment. There are many factors to consider including previous convictions or good character, remorse whether the offence was committed whilst on bail, abuse of power/position of trust and so on.

In this case it can be seen that the sentences for the individual offences of grievous bodily harm are considerably higher than the sentencing range in the sentencing guidelines.  

The court should then go on to consider other factors including credit for guilty plea

Credit for guilty plea

When sentencing, a court will offer credit to a defendant who enters guilty plea(s) as opposed to having a trial. Where a guilty plea is indicated at the first stage of proceedings, a reduction of 1/3 should be made. After the first stage of the proceedings, the maximum level of reduction is 1/4. This discount then reduces on a sliding scale up to trial to a maximum of 1/10 if a guilty plea is entered on the day of trial.

The justification has always been that by pleading guilty it reduces the impact on the public purse (court time as well as prosecution and defence costs) as well as negating the need for witnesses to attend court to give live evidence that at best is inconvenient for them and in a case of this nature, heart-breaking.

In this case, the Judge gave Doyle credit for his guilty plea and stated that the sentence would have been 24 years had he been convicted after trial.

Previous convictions

In this case, it has been reported that Paul Doyle had previous convictions.

In 1989, when in the Royal Engineers, he committed a military offence that equated with common assaul. He was also convicted of a “minor offence of dishonesty”.

In October 1991, he “struck another person several times in the face with a clenched fist” which was reported related to a scuffle with men in a nightclub which resulted in him being thrown out.

In November 1994, Doyle was again convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and jailed for twelve months at Preston Crown Court. It was reported that this involved the defendant biting off the ear of another man in a fight.

Judge Menary acknowledged Doyle had “turned his life around” following his convictions and had not reoffended for 32 years until the Liverpool parade attack. As a result, the Judge commented his previous convictions would not be considered an aggravating factor.

How long will Doyle serve of his sentence?

A determinate prison sentence means the court sets a fixed term, such as in this case 21 years and six months. The offender will not always serve the full duration in prison but cannot be held longer than the set time. Release rules for prisoners depend on sentence length, offence type and when it was imposed. Time served on remand or under curfew can also affect the release date.

In this case Paul Doyle will serve two thirds of his sentence before being released on licence.

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