'He was pale, he was thin': Mugshot that captures the downfall of a cocky killer

It was a world away from the preening, posing selfie apparently taken inside a luxury car. Instead drug dealer John Belfield looked tired, defeated and in disbelief. His time on the run had ended, and he knew it was only a matter of time before he would be sent home to face justice.

- BY ANDREW BARDSLEY

Belfield, who made no reaction in court when he was convicted of Thomas Campbell’s murder, knew he was coming home to receive a life sentence.

The mugshot on the right, taken while he was still in Suriname, in South America, captured how he looked before being returned to the UK.

“He was pale, he was thin, and nothing like how he looks now,” was how Detective Sergeant Paul Davies, the lead officer on the Thomas Campbell murder case, described Belfield’s appearance.

“Yeah, really dishevelled. Really dishevelled.”

DS Davies had never met Belfield prior to their meeting on the tarmac at Manchester Airport on March 9 last year.

“He said very little other than that he knew who I was, because he’s always been following things in the media,” DS Davies said.

Now, having been sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve a minimum of 34 years, Belfield will have plenty of time to consider how things ended this way.

He 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 determine the best time to strike.