The grim final years of ‘wild’ Paul Sykes, who was ‘hunted in packs’ and ‘beaten for sport’

Paul Sykes was somewhat of a cult hero, remembered for many things – and most of them revolved around violence.

He was a former professional heavyweight boxer, a prison lunatic, and an intimidating debt collector. And despite the fact that he has been dead for 17 years, his notoriety is still talked about today.

The hunter spent over 20 years in prison and himself famously said: “I’m an expert on violence – I’ve been at it all my life.”

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When he wasn’t in prison, he was known to wreak havoc in his hometown of Wakefield, where alcohol was banned in most pubs.

His wild stories are endless, and clips of him talking about things like punching sharks “right in the f*****g ear” still go viral to this day – but his death was brutal.

Sykes died in 2007, aged 60, a frail shadow of his former self. And one author who spent years researching his troubled life spoke of how opportunistic bullies “often took liberties” by putting him in pain.

Jamie Boyle, speaking in a recent YouTube video, also described how Sykes was “wild” and found himself in gardens and living out of cardboard boxes.

He spoke out after allegedly receiving messages from members of the public who claimed to have seen Hardman “hiding well” in his later years. But Jamie said “even his wife” could have beaten Sykes from 2002.

He added: “A lot of people would hunt him for sport in packs and it was quite common if you like to have ‘oh I’ve just beaten Paul Sykes’. Well you didn’t, you beat a shell of a man who was somebody.”

He believes Sykes was targeted in the 2000s because of his infamous name and fearsome reputation – but said he was not a physical threat to anyone.

However, giving a raw insight, he added: ‘It was still a nasty job and he was still throwing things at you and shouting abuse and spitting was one of the things he used to do.

“I spoke to several people in the police and they put a bag over him so he couldn’t do that. I forget his name, but he was still as bad as the cat when he was old.”

Despite dying aged 60, Jamie said he looked closer to 85 and was ravaged by diabetes and arthritis. He could barely open a can of beer.

But he claimed he managed to stab one of his friends in the back 11 months before his death during a cider drinking session – before they made up the next day.

Sykes also had marks and scabs on his face after a gang of youths set him on fire while he was sleeping rough. And giving his opinion on whether Syke’s fall was justified, he said: “Was it worth it? I do not know. I believe that only God can be the judge. Life came for the evil he did, and it certainly all came back upon him in his last days.

“His fall was absolutely great. It was as hard as a man could endure, the physical sense, the mental sense.”

He added: “Even when he was living in a cardboard box or a box, he thought he knew better and you couldn’t tell him, you couldn’t tell him. In his last years he was wild. It would be like going into the desert and getting a honey badger and taking it home and trying to train it to be a dog, it just wouldn’t happen.

“It was more for the wild. He was happy to turn up in people’s gardens and fork out five, ten quid here and there to get Special Brew, and he lived for that alone.

“But if he’s done anything, he’s certainly earned his success, and if I say he’s been repaid a thousandfold for whatever evil in life he’s done, that’s no exaggeration, certainly in my mind anyway and certainly from research which I did.”

Sykes died at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, suffering from pneumonia and cirrhosis of the liver.

His legacy includes being housed in 18 different prisons for numerous assaults, including beating police officers. But he also left behind a son, Michael Sharps, who is now serving a life sentence for murdering ex-constable David Ward.