A drug dealer has been found guilty of torturing and murdering a ‘love rival’ in his home.
John Belfield, 31, ‘masterminded’ a plot to ambush, torture, and kill Thomas Campbell at his Tameside home on July 3, 2022.
A court heard how Belfield became ‘furious’ when his ex-partner, Demi-Lee Driver, began dating Thomas, whom he called a ‘money-grabbing little dog’.
Belfield and three men he recruited spent a week surveilling the victim, placing a tracker on his car after he dropped his children off at school.
Thomas’s ex-wife, Coleen Campbell, estranged after he cheated on her, fed her former spouse’s killers information about his whereabouts.
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Belfield and his co-conspirators wished to kill Thomas to steal drugs they believed the victim had hidden, the court heard.
They ‘pounced’ Thomas on his doorstop as he arrived home from a Saturday night out.
For two hours, the men stabbed, strangled and poured hot water on Thomas’s genitals, suffering 61 injuries in total.
Thomas’s bloodied, near-naked body, bound by duct tape, was found in his hallway by concerned neighbours the next day.
The attackers included Stephen Cleworth and Reece Steven, while the identity of the third remains unknown and is wanted by police.
Belfiled escaped police capture and fled to Suriname, a former Dutch colony north of Brazil, two days later.
He was arrested in March 2023 and deported to the UK the following year.
Belfield denied killing Thomas, telling a jury that he couldn’t have been responsible for the murder because he was watching Finding Nemo with his daughter and niece.
Though he admitted he had agreed with Steven and Cleworth to try to steal drugs from Campbell.
Belfield was found guilty of murder and conspiracy to rob and will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court.
Coleen Campbell was found guilty of manslaughter following a trial in 2023. Steven was found guilty of murder.
Stephen Cleworth, who planted the tracking device on Thomas’s car, was convicted of manslaughter. He was not present during the attack as he was at a swingers’ club.
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