Ex-Marine who drove into Liverpool fans ‘may have suffered catathymic crisis’

A former Royal Marine who drove into crowds during Liverpool FC’s victory parade, may have been in the grip of a rare psychological crisis, according to a leading criminologist.

Paul Doyle, 54, is due to be sentenced on Monday after admitting dangerous driving, affray and dozens of GBH-related offences at Liverpool Crown Court.

He injured 134 people in Liverpool’s city centre on May 26 this year after ploughing his Ford Galaxy Titanium into crowds watching the parade at around 6pm.

Criminologist professor David Wilson said Doyle’s behaviour could be understood through the concept of a ‘catathymic crisis’ – a term developed in early 20th-century psychiatry describing the sudden eruption of repressed feelings that leads to seemingly inexplicable violence.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Prof Wilson said he initially expected investigators to find something in Doyle’s background, such as substance misuse or hidden criminal behaviour, that might explain the outburst, but none emerged.

Instead, he pointed to Doyle’s military past and his reputation among colleagues as highly competitive.

Doyle, of Croxteth, Liverpool, broke down in the dock last month as he pleaded guilty to injuring 17 adults and 12 children during the incident.

The married father of three claimed he panicked when supporters banged on his car as he attempted to drive down a closed-off street to meet friends.

Prosecutors rejected that account, saying footage from his own dashcam showed he was angry and intended to cause serious harm as he accelerated into the crowd.

Doyle served in the Royal Marines in the early 1990s, though some reports indicate he may not have completed the full service term.

He went on to earn a degree in psychology and maths from Liverpool University before working in IT and cyber security.

Former colleagues described him as intensely driven in both professional and outdoor pursuits.

Prof Wilson said this competitiveness was relevant. One colleague had recalled a charity climb of Mount Kilimanjaro in which Doyle refused to let others reach the bottom first and quickly ran past them when he noticed two of them try.

The professor suggested that this instinct to take charge may have resurfaced during the parade when Doyle insisted on reaching his intended pick-up point despite the crowds.

Wilson argued that Doyle may have reacted violently because he could not control the situation and was, in his view, fulfilling a ‘mission’ to collect his friends.

He said Doyle’s roles as a Scout leader and active church member also suggested someone used to responsibility and decision-making.

‘The prosecution’s depiction of Paul Doyle as an enraged, entitled, angry white man doesn’t really fit with the pattern of what we know about his domestic life,’ Prof Wilson said.

He said Doyle appeared ‘a good father, a good husband, a great neighbour’ before the incident and that nothing in his recent life hinted at impending violence.

The criminologist also believes Doyle’s behaviour in court showed profound remorse once the psychological crisis had passed.

‘So, what we’re trying to do is explain what appears inexplicable. ‘And that’s why I think the catathymic crisis, this latent issue which hasn’t previously been resolved, bubbles to the surface because it finds an outlet.

‘In that moment, that awful moment in Liverpool, Paul Doyle believes he has to take charge of the crowd.’

Prof Wilson added that individuals who experience such crises often become deeply distressed when they grasp the consequences of their actions.

Doyle’s emotional collapse in the dock, he said, made it clear he was ‘a psychologically broken man’, who now realises the enormity of what he did.

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