Driver jailed for more than 20 years after ploughing into U.K. soccer fans

A British man who injured more than 130 people by ploughing his car into a crowd admitted 31 criminal charges over the incident.

LONDON — A British man who injured more than 130 people by ploughing his car into a crowd of Liverpool soccer fans during May’s Premier League victory parade was jailed for 21-and-a-half years on Tuesday, after admitting 31 criminal charges over the incident.

Paul Doyle drove into the mass of fans — hitting adults and children, who bounced off his vehicle or were dragged underneath it — simply because he lost his temper, prosecutors said.

The 54-year-old last month pleaded guilty to charges including nine counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and 17 counts of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm, on what would have been the first day of his trial.

Police officers at the scene of a car ramming in Liverpool, north-west England on May 27.Paul Ellis / AFP - Getty ImagesProsecutor Paul Greaney on Monday said Doyle was “a man in a rage whose anger had completely taken hold of him” when he deliberately drove at jubilant fans, injuring 134 people including eight children.

“He not only caused injury on a large scale, but he also generated horror in those who had attended what they had thought would be a day of joyfulness,” Greaney said.