List of Shameless Characters - Current Main Characters - Other Main Characters - Joe Pritchard

• Played by: Ben Batt (Series 6–7)

Joseph Pritchard (11 May 1981 – 11 May 2010) was first introduced as the boyfriend of Mandy. Joe works as an accountant, and captains a local amateur football team in Chatsworth. Joe briefly became friends with Mandy's older brother Jamie, and took advantage of his turbulent relationship with Jamie's wife, Karen, and had sex with her twice. Joe would use this incident to blackmail Karen, who was the first to suspect that Mandy was being repeatedly assaulted by him, revealing him as a sadistic sociopath. Eventually, Jamie found out about the bruises on Mandy's body, and confronted Joe at the Jockey, and beat him within an inch of his life. Sending Joe into a temporary coma. Mandy and Jamie's mother, Mimi, claimed to be responsible for attacking Joe, and was sentenced to two months imprisonment. Joe recovered, and after Mandy decided to give their relationship another chance, Joe was separately visited in hospital by Karen, Jamie, Paddy, Shane, Mickey, and Kelly. All of them threatened to kill Joe if he ever laid another hand on Mandy again. Joe was intimidated by their show of force.

It is shown in series 7 that Joe continues his secret relationship with Karen, and delivered her newborn son Connor Joseph Maguire whilst the rest of the family was absent. Joe distanced himself from Karen during and after her mental breakdown, but they continued to have feelings for each other. Joe also bought Yvonne's Kash and Carry store after learning that she borrowed money off Paddy, as she was already in enough debt. One of the reasons for Yvonne's quick departure with Stan was that Stan was beaten up by a masked assailant. They assume Paddy Maguire is involved, not knowing Joe himself had beaten Stan in his plans to help convince them to leave. Joe also took over looking after Chesney, not doing a great job, as Chesney was soon embroiled in a murder investigation. However, the drug-dealer who framed Carl Gallagher and Chesney, called Jimmy.D, in his desperation to prevent them from informing the police of the murder he committed, roams around Chatsworth with his associates, terrorising the neighbourhood, and stepping on the toes of the Maguire family in the process. Shane Maguire declares Jimmy a marked man. The next morning, Chesney is still hiding in the shop when Joe assures him that things are going to turn out okay. Then a flashback is shown that during Shane's interrogation of rival gang-members for Jimmy's whereabouts, Joe had attacked and presumably murdered Jimmy.

Joe's temper flares up as he drives Lillian, from his shop. He gets into an argument with Karen over their sex lives since their breakup, but when Karen tries to taunt him into another tryst, he refuses. He decides to go to anger management to rebuild his life. Karen continues to try to make him boil over, but finally she attends one of his meetings and is impressed by the effort he's making to move on.

When Joe is having a birthday party in The Jockey, he learns his father has died. In spite of Joe seeing his father as a selfish failure, his death is a system shock, and Joe begins trying to reclaim Karen and Connor, whom he continues to see as their son. Joe and Karen resume their affair, but Karen is afraid to tell Jamie the truth. After his father's funeral, Joe finally tells Jamie the entire truth. Joe and Karen hide out at his shop. Joe sees Jamie waiting outside, and expects a fight, only to be devastated when Jamie shows him his father's corpse, dug up and dumped outside Joe's shop. Joe buries his father again, and becomes more determined to take Connor from the Maguires. Joe later implies that he had Paddy Maguire killed after Karen expressed concerns over Paddy taking revenge on them. After running away with Karen with baby Connor, and Ian hiding in the boot unknowingly to Joe, Karen tells Joe that she doesn't love him. He goes into a rage, and strangles Karen while demanding her to tell him that she loves him. She is struggling for breath, and Ian can hear the action outside. He jumps out of the boot and seemingly kills Joe by hitting him twice in the back of the head with a pipe wrench.

It has been confirmed joe will return for a couple of episodes in the last ever series, it is not known how he will be written back to the show. But producers have stated an explosive storyline will happen