Our panic when son rang from Liverpool parade attack

Mason Osborne (right), then aged 17, and his friends were struck by Paul Doyle's car at the parade

The father of a Liverpool fan injured in the car attack on the club's victory parade has spoken of the "absolute state of panic" he felt when his son called to say he had been hit by driver Paul Doyle's vehicle.

Nick Osborne said his son, Mason, was 17 when he travelled to the city with friends to celebrate Liverpool FC's Premier League title win on 26 May.

Mr Osborne, 42, of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, described Mason calling them moments after the car struck their son's thigh, pushing him and his friends out of the way.

He said of Doyle, 54, who admitted all 31 charges against him on Wednesday: "Me and my wife have said we are glad he's admitted the guilt - but he has still done it."

Mr Osborne added: "He was still in the right frame of mind, he could have stopped the car, he could have done all the correct procedures that a normal-thinking person would have done."

Doyle, from Croxteth, Liverpool, had originally denied 31 offences, including causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent - but changed all his pleas at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday, the second day of his trial.

Mr Osborne, himself a Liverpool fan, said he and his wife were watching the parade on television when they noticed the open-top parade bus carrying the Liverpool players picking up speed.

"Then we had a phone call from Mason, and he was in floods of tears saying, 'I think there's been a terror attack'."

Paul Doyle broke down in tears as he answered "guilty" to all 31 charges

"The signal cut out and we couldn't get hold of him," he said.

"There was nothing on the news that we could see, nothing on the internet."

It turned out the incident was not a terror attack, but Doyle had become "increasingly agitated by crowds" and intentionally drove into supporters, who were making their way along Water Street.

The open-top bus carrying Liverpool players and staff had just finished a 10-mile (16km) route around the city, at an event attended by an estimated one million fans.

Doyle was in the city to collect some friends from the parade, but - annoyed by the crowds - drove through traffic barriers and into the supporters, in what the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) called "an act of calculated violence".

Mr Osborne said his son told him that "the car struck him on the right thigh, reasonably hard, and pushed him to one side".

"His friends all got struck and the mum of the family he was with was struck as well.

"There were crowds of people and it was a case of everyone trying to get out of the way, and the car managed to hit a few of them.

"It was horrendous. It was one of the most traumatic, stressful times and my wife was beside herself," he said.

Doyle drove his car into Liverpool supporters during the victory parade in May

Mason, now 18, was taken to hospital with a suspected broken femur, and his friend's mum suffered a broken ankle.

His injury turned out to be a burst blood vessel, which meant the promising football player had to spend two months out of training, resting his leg and regularly applying ice until it healed.

His father said the weekend after the incident, the family went to Paris but the city was busy marking the Champions' League final, which Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) were playing against Inter Milan.

"The whole of Paris was like Liverpool but twice as bad, there were riot vans, flares, obviously we had to get out of that scenario so we had to quickly escape from that situation, just to make sure he was feeling better.

"I think he has had quite a few sleepless nights - he puts a big bravado on it but he has dealt with it really well," he said.

Speaking after Doyle changed his pleas to guilty on Wednesday, Chief Crown Prosecutor Sarah Hammond said Doyle had "finally accepted that he intentionally drove into crowds of innocent people".

"Dashcam footage from Doyle's vehicle shows that as he approached Dale Street and Water Street, he became increasingly agitated by the crowds," she said.

"Driving a vehicle into a crowd is an act of calculated violence. This was not a momentary lapse by Paul Doyle - it was a choice he made that day and it turned celebration into mayhem."

Doyle admitted dangerous driving, affray, 17 charges of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, nine counts of causing GBH with intent and three counts of wounding with intent.

He is set to be sentenced at the same court on 15 and 16 December.