Marched off the plane in handcuffs, he hung his head in shame
He was arrested on the tarmac
Scaling the steps of the Boeing at Manchester Airport, cabin crew greeted them before they were asked: “Camera all ready?”
Minutes later, John Belfield was marched off the plane in handcuffs and hanging his head in shame as four police officers waited to arrest him. With a shaven head, pale and gaunt-looking, it was a far cry from the poised selfie he took in his car months before.
Belfield, 31, was one of three attackers to pounce on Mr Campbell outside his home on July 2, 2022. Over the following two hours they brutally tortured him, causing fatal injuries. It followed a week of the gang meticulously planning the attack, and carrying out reconnaissance to check when the best time to strike would be.
Belfield fled in the aftermath of the murder. He arrived back in Manchester in March last year after spending about seven months on the run. He told his Manchester Crown Court trial that he left the country on July 4, 2022. He used a false passport, GMP said.
Belfield said he travelled to Holyhead, before taking a ferry to Dublin. He said he then travelled to Amsterdam, then on to Spain before flying to Brazil.
The moment police entered the aircraft
He then travelled to Suriname. “I heard that Thomas Campbell’s associates were trying to locate me in Spain because people knew I was in Spain,” Belfield said.
“My cousin was in Suriname at the time. I think he was wanted by the police so he was staying there. I was just more devastated that I was away from my child. It’s not a very nice country to be honest. I was just there to keep myself safe.”
Belfield said he was arrested and later deported from the country to the Netherlands, and then deported back to the UK.
Talking about his spell in custody in Suriname, Belfield said. “It was pretty horrendous to be honest.”
Waiting on the tarmac for Belfield at Manchester Airport on March 9 last year was DS Paul Davies, GMP’s lead officer for the Thomas Campbell murder case.
In bodycam footage, shared by Greater Manchester Police, it reveals the moment he was arrested at Manchester Airport. In the video, he is marched off the plane before being placed into the back of a police van.
As he is arrested, Belfield stares intently through the window of the van, sizing up the officer as he reads him the caution.
GMP DS Paul Davies(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Asked about the time period between Belfield’s arrest in Suriname and his eventual return to the UK, DS Davies said: “It’s frustrating, “You’re thinking, when are we going to get hold of him? Because there’s a lot of work going on. But I’ve also got a really anxious family.
“They’ve lost a loved one in the most horrendous way. And I can’t give the answers as to where he is, where the person who’s the mastermind behind all of it is.”
DS Davies recalled the moment he received a phone call informing him that Belfield was being deported from Suriname.
John Belfield was arrested in Suriname, South America(Image: Greater Manchester Police)
He said: “There’s the initial ‘brilliant’, when you find out you’ve got him. I remember what I was doing when I got the phone call, I was tidying the house. They’ve got him brilliant, brilliant, and then you start thinking, ‘right, how are we going to get him back?’”
Asked for his feelings when he finally met Belfield face-to-face on the tarmac at Manchester Airport, DS Davies said: “Relief. Because it’s not the end, the hard work starts now in terms of pulling everything together for court.
“So it was one of relief to have him. Once he was delivered to the prison was when I could think, ‘well he’s there now’.”
Belfield was found guilty of murder and conspiring to rob Thomas Campbell. He was sentenced to life to serve a minimum term of 37 years in prison.
The court erupted in screams of ‘rot in hell’, ‘rat’ and ‘you f***ing freak’ as he was sentenced.
Following a previous trial in 2023, Reece Steven was also convicted of murder. He was one of the three attackers who struck at Thomas Campbell’s home in Mossley, Tameside.
Stephen Cleworth, who was involved in the planning of the attack, was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to life, to serve a minimum of 12 years. Coleen Campbell, Thomas Campbell’s ex-wife who helped his attackers by feeding them information about her former husband’s whereabouts, was found guilty of manslaughter. She was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
The trio were all also convicted of conspiring to rob Thomas Campbell.