![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_Fox-Price.jpg\")
<\/p>\n‘What should have been the happiest day of my life turned into a final goodbye’<\/p>\n
Manslaughter victim Harley Fox and his killer Dilon Price(Image: Supplied\/Nottinghamshire Police)<\/p>\n
A father killed by a single punch trying to break up a fight in a pub married his childhood sweetheart as he lay in a coma on his hospital bed.<\/p>\n
Nottingham Crown Court<\/a> heard how Harley and Jordan Fox tied the knot with a blessing at the Queen\u2019s Medical Centre<\/a> the day after he\u2019d been fatally attacked by Dilon Price.<\/p>\n In a heartbreaking impact statement, Mrs Fox showed huge bravery<\/a> to tell a packed courtroom how \u201cwhat should have been the happiest day of my life turned into a final goodbye\u201d.<\/p>\n And after her husband\u2019s killer – a former boxer – had struck Mr Fox he shouted \u201cthat’s what you get for messing with a Traveller boy\u201d before leaving the 34-year-old dad-of-one for dead.<\/p>\n Jailing 30-year-old Price for five years and 11 months, Judge Robert Egbuna said: \u201cBecause of your actions you have caused untold misery on Harley Fox\u2019s family, friends and his childhood sweetheart, Jordan.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had planned their wedding but Jordan had to marry the love of her life on his deathbed.<\/p>\n \u201cYou took the life of a loved and cherished member of the community and you will carry that for the rest of your life.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have robbed the family of a life and left them with lifelong heartache and pain.<\/p>\n “There was no justification for the level of violence and aggression you used.<\/p>\n “You boasted after the punch flexing your muscles looking into the beer garden where Harley Fox lay, saying something like ‘that’s what you get for messing with Travellers’.”<\/p>\n Harley Fox had the biggest heart(Image: Nottinghamshire Police)<\/p>\n Sarah Knight, prosecuting, said the killing took place outside the Market Inn, in Main Street, Huthwaite, shortly after 9pm on Sunday, June 8, last year.<\/p>\n She said a couple called John and Summer Francis were out that night celebrating a wedding anniversary and birthday with a group.<\/p>\n The prosecutor said Price arrived in a van and within a short time an argument broke out between him and Mr Francis.<\/p>\n Ms Knight said: \u201cThere was a tussle by the pool table, it was a dynamic event over the course of maybe a couple of minutes.<\/p>\n \u201cJohn Francis goes out into the beer garden and is seen pacing around on his own in a corner near the fence punching and lashing out at the fence in frustration.<\/p>\n \u201c(Price) leaves the bar area and goes over to where John Francis is.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was described as \u2018aggressive and looking for a fight\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cJohn Francis put his hand out to shake hands but the defendant attacked him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was pushed by the defendant and then subjected to an assault by him, putting his hand up to his neck, pushing him towards the wall and headbutting him.<\/p>\n Killer Dilon Price(Image: Nottinghamshire Police)<\/p>\n \u201cOthers tried to intervene and among them was Harley Fox.<\/p>\n \u201cHarley Fox was trying to act as a peacemaker throughout the entirety of that short incident at the pub.<\/p>\n \u201cAt no stage did he do anything wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cHe stood in front of Dilon Price and told him that was enough but the defendant continued to be aggressive and argumentative and pushed Harley Fox causing him to stumble.<\/p>\n \u201cHe also punched him which caused him to fall backwards with force and banging his head into a picnic table and bench before the back of his head hit the concrete.<\/p>\n \u201cOne witness described Harley Fox as \u2018going down like timber\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cHis eyes rolled into the back of his head and he went into cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n \u201cThe defendant was brought back into the pub by another male and appeared agitated and worked up before getting into his van.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was heard to call out the words \u2018that\u2019s what you get for messing with a Traveller boy\u2019 before driving off at speed.\u201d<\/p>\n Miss Knight said Mr Fox was taken to the Queen\u2019s Medical Centre where he was declared dead two days after the attack.<\/p>\n No charges were brought on Mr Francis, she said, and three days later Price handed himself in at Mansfield<\/a> police<\/a> station and he was arrested.<\/p>\n In a prepared statement, he told detectives he was acting in self-defence having been \u201cgrabbed from behind\u201d by Mr Fox who he claimed was trying to strangle him.<\/p>\n Mr Fox\u2019s mother, widow and sister all bravely read their own victim impact statements to the court.<\/p>\n In hers, his mother Donna Thompson said: \u201cHe was clever, funny, kind and had the biggest heart.<\/p>\n \u201cMy beautiful strong boy has gone, his death has shattered the whole family.\u201d<\/p>\n In her statement, his widow Jordan said: \u201cWe were childhood sweethearts and from the moment I met him I knew he was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.<\/p>\n \u201cWe married at his hospital bedside and what should have been the happiest day of my life turned into a final goodbye.<\/p>\n \u201cI live with guilt and regret every day for going out that night.\u201d<\/p>\n And in hers, sister Jade Fox said: \u201cI will never get over the death of my little brother.<\/p>\n \u201cHe could light up any room, a rare human being who was kind and would give his time to anyone.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was my rock and my protector.\u201d<\/p>\n Price, of Back Lane, Sutton-in-Ashfield and who has children aged one and two, previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter as well as assault occasioning actual bodily harm – in relation to Mr Francis – at an earlier hearing.<\/p>\n He has two previous convictions for four offences but nothing for violence.<\/p>\n Mary Prior KC, mitigating, said her client is a man \u201cwith limited intellect and limited education\u201d having left school at the age of nine and is unable to read or write.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cHe has worked as a roofer and a landscape gardener.<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing what occurred inside the public house what Dilon Price should have done is to leave but he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cHe did not run away; he was told to leave.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was not premeditated or planned.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said \u2018a split second has changed the lives of so many people and if I could go back I would\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIn relation to him being an experienced boxer, he did box at the age of 16 or 17 but he has not trained for 12 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘What should have been the happiest day of my life turned into a final goodbye’ Manslaughter victim Harley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1343,924,59,57,58,79469,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-548879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-mansfield","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Mr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1_harley-fox-soh.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_Dilon-Price.jpg\")
<\/p>\n