Maids Moreton murder: Church warden convicted of killing older lover for money in Buckinghamshire village

A church warden has been convicted of murdering his older lover for money after subjecting him to psychological torture.

Benjamin Field, 28, attempted to portray his victim Peter Farquhar as an alcoholic in the hope his death would be attributed to natural causes after convincing him to change his will.

The pair entered into a relationship after meeting at the University of Buckingham, where Field was Mr Farquhar’s English student.

Oxford Crown Court heard that Field moved into Mr Farquhar’s home in the village of Maids Moreton in 2014 and in March of that year they underwent a “betrothal” ceremony at a church.

“It is one of the happiest moments of my life,” Mr Farquhar wrote in a journal. “Gone are the fears of dying alone.”

Less than two years later he was dead, murdered by Field after a campaign of psychological torture that aimed to convince Mr Farquhar he was losing his mind.

Field spiked his food and drink with neat alcohol and hallucinogenic drugs, while moving everyday objects around the house and “gaslighting” his victim into believing he had misplaced them or forgotten his own actions.

Mr Farquhar, a well-known academic and author who had taught at Stowe and Manchester Grammar School, had been “fit in mind and body”.

But the court heard how Field’s efforts caused “agony” for his victim, causing him to believe he could be a closet alcoholic or suffering from dementia.

Prosecutor Oliver Saxby QC said Field had hoped Mr Farquhar may kill himself, after making changes to his will meaning he would receive £20,000 and a life interest in his home.

“To get the money, he had to die,” Mr Saxby told the jury, detailing how Mr Farquhar was found dead on his sofa by a cleaner on 26 October 2015.

A partly empty bottle of whisky and glass nearby and Field told paramedics he had “alcohol issues”, sparking a routine post-mortem that resulted in an initial finding of death by “acute alcohol intoxication”.

It was not until a second post-mortem in 2017 that police discovered Mr Farquhar had been given a cocktail of sedatives over several months, and may have been smothered.

The death was revisited after a woman who lived in the same village, Ann Moore-Martin, said Field had been giving her “white powder”.

The former Catholic school headteacher, 83, also lived alone in Maids Moreton and entered a sexual relationship with Field before Mr Farquhar’s death.

The court heard that Field embarked on a campaign of “mirror writing” where he scrawled messages throughout her home claiming to be from God and encouraging her to make him a beneficiary of her will.

Ms Moore-Martin suffered a seizure and was admitted to hospital in February 2017, later telling a friend that she had been given “white powder” by Field to sleep better.

A police investigation started and Ms Moore-Martin went into a care home, where she later died from a stroke in May 2017.

Before her death, she told officers that she changed her will because she thought she loved Field.

“I wanted to support him in all the ways I could,” Ms Moore-Martin said. “I suppose I wanted to please and satisfy him.”

Her niece, Anne-Marie Blake, said her aunt had been “tortured” by Field’s betrayal and described learning of their relationship as her “worst nightmare”.

Ian Farquhar, the victim’s brother, told the jury that Field did not express any emotion or express condolences when he saw him hours after the death, appearing “strangely unaffected”.

Field’s co-accused, magician Martyn Smith, 32, was found not guilty of murder.

The pair were both cleared of a charge of conspiracy to murder Ms Moore-Martin and Field was also acquitted of her attempted murder.

Prosecutors said Field had a “profound fascination in controlling and manipulating and humiliating and killing”, which was detailed in his diaries and journals.

Field, a Baptist minister's son, admitted fraudulently being in relationships with Mr Farquhar and Ms Moore-Martin as part of a plot to get them to change their wills but denied any involvement in their deaths.

He denied Mr Farquhar could have died from taking his usual dose of flurazepam and drinking whisky, telling jurors: “This murder never happened. No-one killed anyone.”

Senior investigating officer Mark Glover, a retired detective chief inspector, said the murder was “all about financial gain”.

“Ben documented what he calls the ‘endgame’, which was financial benefit from the will,” he told The Independent. “But in the journey getting there he took pleasure in inflicting pain and torment, mental torture, on both Ann and Peter.”

“Both relationships were a complete pack of lies, there was nothing truthful in there,” Mr Glover added.

“The romantic side of the relationship, caring for each other, he didn’t care about anybody except Ben Field. The only thing he did anything for was Ben Field, everything centred on himself.”

Chris Derrick, head of the complex casework unit at CPS Thames-Chiltern, added: “I think torture is a word that can be used to described Benjamin Fields' behaviour.”

He added: “He is clearly a very calculating and ruthless man who spent a great deal of time planning what he was going to do.”

Field's brother Tom, 24, a Cambridge University graduate, was cleared of a single charge of fraud.

Field showed no emotion as the jury returned the verdicts on Friday.

When his brother, who was on bail, was released from the dock he hugged his parents.

Mr Justice Sweeney adjourned his sentencing until a later date, ordered a pre-sentence psychiatric report and remanded him in custody.

Additional reporting by PA