The Manchester Evening News has looked back on the criminals jailed this week
Tony Drewitt, John Belfield and Kyle Bent(Image: Greater Manchester Police)
Murderer John Belfield is amongst those who have been locked up this week. Following a month-long trial, he was convicted of the horrific attack on Thomas Campbell in which he was ‘tortured to death’.
Also locked up this week was a vile thug who organised an arson at his ex’s family home in a bid to get her to retract a statement against him.
Another criminal behind bars this week is paedophile Tony Drewitt who abused a young girl over a year.
Prison terms are handed out to the worst offenders. And Manchester Evening News reporters are on hand to cover the most serious cases.
Kyle Bent
Kyle Bent(Image: GMP)
An thug warned his ex’s mum ‘it’s now war for life’ amid a plot to firebomb her home. Kyle Bent was in an on-off relationship with his former partner for over three years.
A court heard he was violent and controlling, fuelled by drugs. During a holiday to Jamaica, Bent attacked the woman and left her needing stiches in her face.
They broke up when they returned to the UK and he threated to kill her. The woman reported him to police, before he attempted to persuade her not to give evidence against him and retract her statement.
He later admitted what he had done, before hatching a plan to firebomb his ex’s mother’s home from prison. Bent, 36, recruited another man – Clint Baker, 31 – and they organised a date and time and agreed on payment.
Manchester Crown Court heard that in the early hours of February 23 last year, Baker and an unknown person were caught on CCTV making Molotov Cocktails and pouring petrol over parked cars outside the woman’s family home.
Later, Bent messaged his ex’s mum saying: “Protect your family. It’s now war for life, so go hide with the police. I’m sure they will take care of you forever haha.”
Both men have now been jailed for the ‘revenge’ attack.
Read the full story here: ‘Protect your family. It’s now war for life, so go hide with the police’
Matthew Brierley and David Waterhouse
Matthew Brierley, left, and David Waterhouse, right(Image: GMP)
A drug-dealer who went by the name ‘Golden Lad’ and a man described by police as his ‘trusted courier’ have been jailed for a combined total of 14 years.
David Waterhouse, 49, was ‘identified as a key figure in the supply of multi-kilo quantities of Class A drugs’, police said as they started their sentences.
Waterhouse, of Steps Meadow in Smallbridge, Rochdale, was jailed for 11 years after pleading guilty to being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs and money laundering.
Read the full story here: The ‘Golden Lad’ and his trusted courier who are now behind bars
Tony Drewitt
(Image: GMP)
A sex offender who groomed and abused a teenage girl over a year-long period has been jailed.
Police said Tony Drewitt – now aged 77 – engaged in a ‘prolonged period of grooming a young girl, who should have been free to enjoy her childhood’. Instead, added Greater Manchester Police, he ‘denied her of her youth’.
Drewitt, of Hazon Way in Epsom, Surrey, was jailed for 12 months by a judge at a Manchester Crown Court sentencing hearing.
Read the full story here: Pensioner paedophile sexually abused young girl in sickening crimes
Steven Westlake
(Image: Lancashire Police)
A paedophile who sexually assaulted two young children has been jailed. Police branded Steven Westlake ‘a despicable man’ who abused the youngsters ‘for his own, abhorrent sexual desires’.
Westlake – who police said also used the surname Clayton – has now been jailed for eight years and six months.
The 43 year-old, of Chorley Old Road in Bolton, groomed the two young children in Preston, Lancashire, going on to sexually assault and threaten them, Lancashire Police said.
Read the full story here: ‘He’s a despicable man’: Paedophile jailed for sexually abusing young children
John Belfield
John Belfield(Image: GMP)
A court erupted in screams of ‘rot in hell’, ‘rat’ and ‘you f***ing freak’ as John Belfield was jailed for life for the murder of Thomas Campbell.
Belfield, 31, recruited a team to help him kill Campbell after he began a relationship with Demi-Lee Driver, his killer’s ex-partner. Belfield was one of three men who lay in wait as Campbell arrived home late on a Saturday night on July 2, 2022.
Manchester Crown Court heard the killing followed a week of hostile surveillance carried out on 38-year-old Mr Campbell by Belfield and his conspirators.
When they struck, Campbell could be heard to scream as the trio attacked and subdued him on his front drive, before bundling him inside the house on Riverside in Mossley, Tameside.
Over two hours he was stabbed, strangled and had hot liquid poured on his genitals. Prosecutors said he was ‘tortured to death’, having suffered 61 separate injuries.
Read the full story here: Screams of ‘rot in hell’ and ‘you f***ing freak’ as John Belfield jailed for life for murder of love rival Thomas Campbell