This is the shocking moment a gangster’s moll battered a woman with a hammer in a love triangle street brawl just days before helping a group of thugs torture and kill her drug-dealing ex-husband.
Brutal Coleen Campbell launched into the savage daylight attack against Niamh Wasik in Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester on June 29, 2022.
The onslaught took place less than a week before Campbell’s ex-husband, Thomas Campbell, was tortured to death by three men, acting on information she provided.
Drug dealer Thomas was ambushed as he unlocked his front door in Mossley, Greater Manchester, on July 2, 2022.
He had been followed after a tracker was placed on his van while he was picking up his daughter from school, a court previously heard.
He was found dead the next day having suffered horrific injuries.
Campbell was caged for 13 years for her role in Thomas’s death. Two men were also convicted over the attack, while a third accused of murder is due to go on trial later this year.
On Monday, Coleen was hauled before the courts again following her involvement in a separate attack involving two other women, Hannah Derbyshire, 27, and Chloe Bamford, 30, and Simon Bowden, 38.
Campbell appeared via video link from HMP Drake Hall in Staffordshire, with Minshull Street Crown Court hearing how the attack was motivated by a love triangle row.
Coleen Campbell launched into the savage daylight attack in Ashton-under-Lyne on June 29, 2022 – days before helping gangsters to find and torture her husband Thomas to death
Thomas and Coleen Campbell pose during a holiday photo. Thomas died in July 2022
Pictured is Campbell and another woman at they batter Niamh Wasik in Ashton-under-Lyne on June 29, 2022
Derbyshire and their victim, Ms Wasik, were both said to be in a relationship with James Heaney, reports Manchester Evening News.
Prosecutor Danielle Gilmour told how Campbell was driving a VW Tiguan with the three other defendants in the car, on June 29, 2022 before ambushing the victim at the junction of Rutland Street and Granville Street in Ashton-under-Lyne.
The four then got out and launched into a frenzied assault on the victim, which was caught on CCTV.
Derbyshire leapt out the car and began ‘raining down blows and kicks’ on the victim,’ the court herard, while Bowden – armed with a ‘two foot long drill bit’ – pulled a balaclava down over his face.
Campbell, wearing all black and armed with a hammer, hit the victim ‘multiple times’ before dragging the woman to the ground where she was kicked by Campbell and her two female accomplices.
The brutal battering lasted about 90 seconds before Campbell and the three other attackers fled the scene in the Tiguan, with a rock being hurled at the vehicle’s windshield as it sped away.
Campbell allegedly stole the victim’s handbag, which was found in her home when police raided it, the court heard.
Campbell and her three accomplices all ‘lied or made no comment’ when questioned by police, a judge said.
Campbell, wearing all black and armed with a hammer, hit the victim ‘multiple times’ before dragging the woman to the ground where she was kicked by Campbell and her accomplices
Campbell is pictured outside Manchester Crown Court during an earlier hearing relating to her husband’s death
Bamford claimed she had been acting in self-defence, while Bowden said he had been in Manchester city centre at the time. It is not known whether the victim suffered any injuries, as she refused to co-operate with police.
All four defendants pleaded guilty to violent disorder. Campbell also admitted theft.
Defending Campbell, Bob Elias said she appeared an ‘amiable, bright and pleasant woman’.
Constance Halliwell for Bowden said the father had a young son who was just starting high school and that he was determined to ‘keep himself on the straight and narrow’,
The court heard the defendant had been recalled to prison on a life licence since August 2022, which he received as part of an indeterminate sentence for public protection for robbery.
Beautician Bamford had no previous convictions and was completing a university degree, her lawyer Umar Shahzad, told the court.
While John Richards, who represented Derbyshire, said his client – a catering assistant at a pub – also had no previous convictions and insisted she was ‘thoroughly ashamed’ of her actions which were a ‘one off’.
Campbell’s ex-husband Thomas (pictured) was tortured to death days after she took part in the love triangle attack
Sentencing, Recorder Michael Blakey said: ‘On June 29, 2022, the four of you went in a car, clearly a planned adventure, to a place, Granville Street in Ashton-under-Lyne, where the victim in this case was assaulted.
‘The motive behind this appears to be the relationship that there was between you, Hannah Derbyshire, and somebody called James Heaney.
‘The victim was involved in a relationship with him also. The four of you went in the car, three of you armed, Ms Campbell with a hammer, you Hannah Derbyshire didn’t arm yourself, and you Ms Bamford with a rolling pin. Mr Bowden you had a two foot long drill bit in your possession.
‘It must have been a very frightening and scary situation which arose, and no doubt put people who were watching what was going on in fear themselves.’
He told Campbell: ‘You armed yourself with a hammer, you in fact used the hammer on the victim in this case. I have read information which suggests you while you have been in custody have developed insight, that you have attended courses and are doing all you possibly can to reform yourself. That is to be commended.’
Campbell and Bowden, both of no fixed address, were sentenced to 18 months in prison each.
Derbyshire, of Clayton, and Bamford, of Openshaw, were both handed suspended prison sentences.
