Drug dealer John Belfield who plotted love-rival’s murder with help from victim’s ex jailed

A drug dealer who tortured a love rival to death was told to ‘rot in hell’ as he was jailed for life over the murder plot.

John Belfield, 31, recruited a ‘gang of thugs’ to kill Thomas Campbell after he began a relationship with ex-partner Demi-Lee Driver.

He and two accomplices lay in wait for Campbell as he arrived home in Mossley, Greater Manchester, before bundling him inside late on July 2, 2022.

Campbell was found by neighbours the following morning naked and bound with duct tape with a ‘horrendous’ catalogue of more than 60 injuries.

The murder investigation revealed Campbell’s own ex-wife, Coleen, had been in on the plot, feeding his killers information on his whereabouts.

Coleen Campbell was found guilty of manslaughter following a trial in 2023.

Reece Steven, one of the three attackers to kill Thomas Campbell, was found guilty of murder.

Stephen Cleworth, who Belfield also recruited and planted the tracking device on Campbell’s car, was convicted of manslaughter.

The trio were all also convicted of conspiring to rob Thomas Campbell.

The third attacker who formed part of the group who attacked Campbell remains unknown and is wanted by police.

Coleen Campbell, Steven and Cleworth were all jailed in 2023. But Belfield evaded police and fled the country two days after the murder.

At his trial, Belfield claimed he had agreed with Steven and Cleworth to try and steal drugs from Campbell, which they believed he hid in fields across Tameside and east Manchester.

He said Coleen Campbell suggested locations where the drugs would be buried.

Belfield maintained that he did not want ‘trouble’ with Campbell and that he was not jealous of the relationship with his ex.

But after a month-long trial, Belfield was found guilty of murder and conspiracy to rob.

Jailing him for life with a minimum term of 37 years today, Mr Justice Garnham said: ‘Thomas Campbell was no saint. Like you, he was involved in the sale and distribution of drugs.’

But he added: ‘He was also a human being.

‘The manner of his death was horrific. His family and friends have had to listen to the description of his injuries.

‘His father has described his family’s prolific grief – it’s plain he was greatly loved.

‘I find you, John Belfield, were the leading role in the conspiracy to rob and the attack itself.

‘This gang of thugs, with which you were the leader, attacked Mr Campbell and stole from him the drugs you believed he had.

‘No one knows what exactly happened in Riverside. It cannot be said who delivered the blows with knives, fists or boots.’

The judge described Campbell’s injuries as nothing short of ‘horrendous’.

He said he had no doubt that Belfield ‘took pleasure in his pain’.

The judge said Campbell was a rival of Belfield’s ‘in the grimy world of illicit drugs’, adding: ‘But at least as significant, he was your rival for the affections of Demi-Lee Driver.’

He told Belfield he was in ‘no doubt’ the fact she had become Campbell’s partner ‘was an important part of your motivation for what you did on July 2’.

You suggested in evidence that you were being sarcastic when you described yourself, by means of emojis, as heartbroken after she took up with Thomas Campbell,’ Mr Justice Garnham said.

‘I conclude that that is exactly what you felt. You wanted Thomas Campbell to suffer.

‘That is why you or those acting at your direction, systematically cut parallel lines across his face – you wanted to disfigure him because you wanted him to believe that, even if he escaped with his life, no woman would want him.

‘You may not have intended to kill Mr Campbell from the beginning but, given the severity of the beating, kicking, stabbing, scalding and throttling which the three of you inflicted on him, I have no doubt that by the time you left him bleeding, alone on the floor of his hallway, you intended that he should die.’

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