11 March 2024 , 22:27
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Jailed Manchester hardman Dougie Joyce has sent a video message from his prison cell, denying he has been the subject of an attack behind bars.
It followed unconfirmed reports circulating widely on social media that 35-year-old Joyce- who is serving time for a vicious assault on a 78-year-old man in a Manchester city centre pub - had been attacked in the prison showers, leaving Joyce needing an operation on his eyes.
But Joyce, one of the highest profile members of Manchester's traveller community, posted a video from his prison cell. Laughing and smiling, he says: "Do I look like a guy who's on the hospital wing or been done in?" He signs off the brief clip saying he's 'fresh as a daisy' and winking to the camera, as he lays back on his prison cell bed.
In November Joyce was jailed for the vicious assault. After he was sent down for 19 months, police described him as an 'aggressive and violent man who intended to intimidate and inflict pain on a vulnerable 78-year-old'.
Joyce, wearing a black baseball cap and a Givenchy tracksuit top, followed his victim into the back room of the pub on Thomas Street in the Northern Quarter and began shouting and pointing at him, before punching him in the face and knocking him off his seat.
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He continued to stand over the pensioner while gesticulating aggressively. When the victim stood up, Douglas Joyce launched a left hook to his face, propelling him backwards over the table and chairs.
The eldest of seven brothers and four sisters, Dougie Joyce began boxing aged six. A successful schoolboy and amateur fighter, he reportedly turned down a role in Channel 4's My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding to become 'the next Tyson Fury'.
Holly Joyce, 27, with husband Dougie at their home in Ellenbrook, Greater Manchester (Matthew Lofthouse SWNS)In The Joyce Family Documentary on Amazon, which 'explores the world of the travelling community', Joyce told how he was raised to stand up for himself. "The way I've been taught, all my life, is you fight fire with fire," he said. "You learn how to defend yourself and that's it."
"I had it when I was young," he said. "We were always on the move. Every time you went in a school you were the odd one out. No-one ever liked a traveller. I was a 'little g****'. Every day I went in there I had a fight. I went through the thick of it. Not only myself, every traveller in the country."
In 2012 he was sentenced for his part in a street brawl involving his younger brother Johnny and their cousin, reality TV star Paddy Doherty, the climax of a feud which dated back to a fracas at a family funeral.
The fight between Johnny Joyce and the then 52-year-old Celebrity Big Brother star stopped rush-hour traffic after it spilled from the car park of a PC World in Ardwick into a main road. Part of Doherty's ear was bitten off by Johnny Joyce during the fracas.
Bloodied and badly injured, Doherty collapsed on a grass verge after a woman passer-by urged Johnny and Dougie, who filmed the fight, to 'leave him alone', Manchester Crown Court heard. Doherty admitted affray and was given a suspended sentence.
Johnny Joyce, admitted the same charge, and was jailed for 15 months. Dougie Joyce, then 23, was spared jail after admitting a public order offence. He had incriminated himself by showing police the video he had taken of the fight, in which he can be heard encouraging his brother. Ordering Dougie Joyce to do 150 hours unpaid work as part of a 12-month community order, Judge Steiger described the feud as 'revolting', adding: "I trust that you are older and wise enough to realise that it should stop."
Four years later Joyce, then of Boothstown, Salford, was back in trouble after taking part in a 'Wild West style' fight at a pub in Gorton. Manchester Crown Court heard he backed up brother Johnny, in an early hours confrontation with another family at the Vulcan Inn. Dougie Joyce was spoiling for a fight when he walked into the packed boozer with his brother, the court heard. Chairs were thrown as they swaggered in, and elder brother Dougie was seen batting away a bar stool with his hand.
His limited involvement in the melee - mainly charging about with his hood up as chairs went back and forth - resulted in a charge of threatening behaviour, to which he pleaded guilty. The main incident that night was an attack on a man which came before the fracas inside the venue, who never made a complaint to police, but was left bleeding after being ambushed in the smoking area.
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There were 16 calls to 999 in the aftermath, with reports of multiple stabbings at the scene. Dougie Joyce was not linked to any of the stabbings, and a man seen at the scene with a weapon in his hand couldn't be traced.
In the Joyce Family Documentary, Joyce also describes how he was jailed for his involvement in a fight outside the former Birdcage nightclub in Manchester city centre. Joyce met his wife Holly, a former Jet2 air hostess, over Instagram in 2019. They tied the knot in an extravagant ceremony at the Gorton Monastery in July last year. The lavish do cost over £60,000, included four Rolls Royces, a £12,000 dress and champagne on tap. Holly, a mum-of-two, from Salford, described the romance as a 'whirlwind that's turned into a fairytale'.
Joyce has launched several businesses, including a bespoke furniture range, activewear companies and his own whiskey brand Joyce's Irish Whiskey. He is also the founder and president of boxing promoters 3D Fight Club. Earlier this year he told the Manchester Evening News of his ambition to change the perception of bare knuckle boxing.
"We have created this because people have made it sound barbaric," he said. "But it is really not that bad. You have got your medics, you've got your referees, everything is all done professionally. I am proud to say every show I have had, there has been not one problem, no kick off, no violence.
"Everybody who comes has a good night and what we are doing is making it kid friendly too, 16 upwards, allowing them to come down and enjoy the show. We want to encourage families to come down and enjoy a great evening."
It was part of an alleged effort to turn his life around. "I've grown up a lot," he told documentary makers. "I was hot-headed, too much testosterone, a lot to prove.
"As you get older, I have responsibilities. You grow out of it. You look at yourself and think I don't want to do what I did back then. I'm proud of what I've become - an entrepreneur, businessman. Everything I used to do in the past, that's dead and gone. The man that I am now is a complete straight man, businessman, legit man."
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We do not tolerate mobile phones in prison and those found with them face extra time behind bars. We are also introducing new laws to ensure that content filmed inside prison is removed from social media platforms more quickly.”