‘Hero’ ex-soldier who climbed into Paul Doyle’s car to stop Liverpool parade rampage says ‘I’d do it again’
Daniel Barr said he did not think his actions were ‘anything special’ after bringing the attack to a halt
A “hero” former soldier who climbed into the passenger seat of Paul Doyle’s car and brought his anger-fuelled rampage at the Liverpool FC victory parade to a stop has said he would “do it again”.
Daniel Barr managed to move the gearstick into park mode and said that Doyle, who was jailed for 21 years and six months for the attack, could not have prevented him even if he had “chopped my arm off”.
Before Mr Barr intervened, Doyle had driven through the crowds celebrating Liverpool FC winning the Premier League, injuring 134 people on 26 May.
Police and prosecutors have praised the 41-year-old’s actions, stating Doyle would likely have gone on to cause more injuries if he had not intervened.
And after sentencing Doyle, the recorder of Liverpool, Judge Andrew Menary KC, praised Mr Barr’s “outstandingly brave” actions and awarded him the High Sheriff’s Award for bravery, which includes a monetary award of £250.
“At a moment when many understandably feared for their own safety, he ran towards the danger, entered a moving vehicle and brought it to a halt, thereby preventing further injury and quite possibly saving lives,” he said.
Mr Barr, who suffered cuts to his head following a “scuffle” with the driver, said he only did what most other people on the street were trying to do.
He said: “I don’t think it’s anything special. I know it sounds mad. It hasn’t sunk in. Maybe it never will, but I’ll do it again.”
The builder’s labourer, who served for eight years in the Royal Engineers, including in Iraq, said he saw the “opportunity” to get in when Doyle’s Ford Galaxy stopped with the rear passenger door about five paces away from him.
He said: “My intention was to punch the window through.
“Although this was a split second, there was other people around the car, and they were desperately, desperately, and rightfully so, trying to get in.
“So I ran up to that window with the full intention of punching it, whatever use that would do, because I assumed that all the doors were locked and that’s why nobody could get in and they were punching it.
“Just at the final moment, I tried the door and it opened.”
Mr Barr, from Birkenhead, Wirral, crawled into the back seat and said that once he was in the car, Doyle accelerated away, causing the rear door to slam shut.
His memory of his time in the car is “blurry”, but he said he remembered the contrast between the screaming, shouting and panic on the street and relative silence inside.
He said he got the impression it was a “family car” and remembered Doyle repeating words to the effect of, “Why won’t they move out my way?”
He recalled looking for the car keys to stop Doyle and feeling that the car was “gliding through” the crowd “indiscriminately”.
He said: “Eventually, this could be like two seconds, I don’t know, I remember seeing the automatic gear stick, so from the back seat I reached through, and I’ve pushed it as far as I could, as hard as I could, into ‘P’ which has brought the car to a stop.”
Mr Barr remembers having a scuffle with Doyle, who kept trying to rev the car as he held the automatic gearstick in park mode.
He said: “He had no chance, he wasn’t going to move my arm. No way, he could try to chop it off or whatever. I remember that much.”
While holding the gearstick in place, he reached forward with his other hand and pressed Doyle’s seatbelt buckle.
“As soon as I pressed that, he was gone,” he said. “The crowd were trying to get him out. From what I remember, the windows were getting smashed, everybody was trying to get in, rightfully so.
“I pressed the seatbelt and off he disappeared.”
After leaving the car, Mr Barr carried on making his way up the road and later met his brother, who had also been in the city for the parade.
“I imagine I told him at a million miles an hour, something roughly that made sense, and then went for a pint,” he said.
Praising his actions, Detective Chief Inspector John Fitzgerald, the senior investigating officer, said: “There is no doubt in my mind that Doyle would have continued to drive and cause further injuries had Dan not acted with such bravery.”