Thomas Campbell

Campbell's RSO mugshot

> "I love to suck a young man. Deepthroat and drain him dry."
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> - Thomas bragging about his DSLs
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**Thomas Del Campbell** was a suspected predator involved in the Fort Myers, Florida edition of **To Catch a Predator**. At 61 years old, he was by far the oldest man caught in the sting.

## Biography

Thomas was 61-years-old when he started talking to "Tony," a boy he thought was fourteen-years-old. After six minutes of conversation, Thomas lies about his name, claiming to be "John." He then inquires the boy about what he liked to do with men. After that, he boasts that he can "suck a young man, deepthroat, and drain him dry." He explains from what "most say its the best they've had" and that the "real compliment is when they keep coming back for more." Thomas asks the boy how frequently he came after his orgasm.

Thomas assures the child that he is not a "old guy wanting to perv a younger boy" by lying about his age and claiming to be in his forties. He states he enjoyed "being with younger ones and they seem[ed] to enjoy [him]." He informs the boy that older males often didn't mean well when they interacted with kids, but he assures him that he wasn't like that. Later, Thomas enquired of the child when he was free to meet. The two try to schedule a meeting time by chat and email for the following week. The boy informs Thomas that both the meet and his parents' trip to Las Vegas are scheduled. Thomas said to the child before the conversation and meeting came to an end that he could "experiment with anything" and that he wasn't "into any kind of pain...just awesome pleasure."

## Sting and Arrest

Because Thomas lived close by, it was easy for him to travel to the sting house, where Del Harvey, who is pretending to be the teenage boy, waves him in. Del enters the home hurriedly to avoid giving Thomas the impression that she is a fake. He cries, "Where you at?!" in frustration. Del motions for him to have a seat while she leaves the room, but Thomas makes a beeline for the door, leading Chris Hansen to confront him right away in order to prevent him from looking too deeply inside the house where Perverted Justice and camera crews are stationed. Thomas complies with Chris's request to sit down. Thomas falsely claims to be 49 when Chris asks him about his age. He asks what the issue was as his breathing became labored. Thomas stated he was simply going to "talk" with the boy and pretends to be perplexed by the situation after Chris questioned whether he saw a problem. Thomas finally breaks down and tells the truth about his name and age when Chris applies even the smallest pressure. He takes out an inhaler as his breathing becomes more erratic. He rejects Chris' offer to give him some water.

Thomas reveals that he has asthma, emphysema, and a quintuple heart bypass after calming down. Thomas admitted that he occasionally smoked because he was addicted after Chris questioned whether he did. However, he constantly tried to get out of his situation by lying, claiming that he knows how difficult it is was growing up gay and that he wanted to mentor the boy and educate him that being gay is not something to be ashamed like when he was younger. Chris is prompted by this to pull up the chat log and repeat some of the explicit portions of his conversation. Chris asked if he wanted to mentor the boy, why did he lied about his age and name. Thomas asserted that he fabricated his idendity since no one online would converse with someone in their fifties. Chris said that it went against the lies he gave him for mentoring the teenage boy. Then Thomas admits that he is extremely nervous because he didn't know who Chris was. The cameras start rolling when the latter says he works for Dateline NBC. Thomas then leaves the residence and is arrested by the police.

## Sentence and death

Thomas was found guilty of a felony count of using the internet to attempt to solicit a minor for sex. He was sentenced to nine months in jail, three years of probation, and registration as a sexual offender for the rest of his life.

Almost ten years to the day of his exposure on Dateline, Thomas passed away on April 24th, 2016, at the age of 71 after battling a long unknown illness. His remains were cremated at Affordable Cremations and Horizon Funeral Home.

## Trivia

1. ↑ http://www.perverted-justice.com/?con=jlh3120
2. ↑ https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/news-press/obituary.aspx?n=thomas-del-campbell&pid=179739853&
3. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/241547300/thomas-del-campbell