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.
Belfield, 28, from Openshaw, east Manchester, will be sentenced at a later date (Picture: MEN Media)
Prosecutors told the court Belfield was in a relationship with Thomas’s ex-girlfriend, Colleen Campbell (above) (Picture: Cavendish Press)
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.
Bellfield told jurors his alibi was watching Finding Nemo with his daughter (Picture: Cavendish Press)
Thomas was tortured (Picture: MEN Media)
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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