A trainee priest has been convicted of killing an English university lecturer for financial gain but acquitted of plotting to murder an elderly neighbour.
On Friday 9 August, Ben Field, 28, was convicted of murdering Peter Farquhar, 69, at his home in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, in October 2015 but was found not guilty of conspiracy to murder Ann Moore-Martin, 83, in May 2017 at her home three doors away.
Field, who previously admitted four charges of fraud and two of burglary, faces life in prison when he is sentenced at Oxford Crown Court later this year.
— Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) August 9, 2019
Mark Glover, Thames Valley Police’s Principal Investigator, told journalists at a briefing before the trial began that Mr Farquhar was devoutly religious, but also a homosexual who was vulnerable to Field’s manipulation.
Mr Glover said Field was "controlling, manipulating, cruel, deceitful and dishonest."
Field, a churchwarden who was on the way to being ordained as a priest, had a platonic relationship with Mr Farquhar, whose homosexuality clashed with his strong Christian principles, and slept in his bed in the months up until his death.
But he later had a sexual relationship with Miss Moore-Martin, a spinster and retired headmistress who was devoted to her Roman Catholic faith.
The trial heard both were subjected to a sustained campaign of "gaslighting", whereby they were tricked into imagining things which made them doubt their own sanity.
At one point Field wrote on a mirror in Miss Moore-Martin’s and made her believe they were “messages from God.”
Mr Glover said Field had been a student at the University of Buckingham, where he met Mr Farquhar, who was a lecturer in English.
He befriended him and eventually ended up moving in with Mr Farquhar in nearby Maids Moreton.
Field covertly administered drugs to Mr Farquhar, making him feel tired and prone to lapses in memory, which he began to diagnose as dementia.
After Mr Farquhar’s death - which was initially ascribed to excess alcohol - Field moved on to Miss Moore-Martin.
Their friendship turned into a sexual liaison - despite the age difference of almost 60 years - and he tricked her into giving him £4,000 for a kidney dialysis machine he said his brother needed.
Mr Glover said: “Peter and Ann were both vulnerable through their age and their religion. Both returned to an empty house at night and it was this which Field exploited.”
He said: “Peter was conflicted between his religion and his homosexuality. He said he was celibate.”
At the trial the jury heard how Mr Farquhar had written 18 lines of rhyming verse about Field after the churchwarden wrote "extremely insulting" poems about him.
Mr Farquhar described Field as "deceptive and disloyal", a "nonentity whom nobody reads" and said "hurting others is his special pleasure."
Prosecutor Oliver Saxby QC, told the jury: "Ann Moore-Martin was gushing about Benjamin Field. She sounded like a love-struck teenager."
— Bucks Herald (@bucks_herald) 4 July 2019
The trial heard Field, a Baptist minister’s son, bought her a sex toy and plotted for her to choke to death on her own dentures during sex.
Mr Saxby said Field suffocated Mr Farquhar and tried to kill Miss Moore-Martin "by a manner of means", but she eventually died of natural causes, leaving her home to him in her will.
Field also inherited money and Mr Farquhar’s house
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The prosecution claimed another victim - Liz Zettl - was being lined up to be swindled.
Miss Zettl, who is 101, made UK legal history when she becoming the oldest witness in a court case after giving evidence against Mr Smith, her former lodger.
After giving evidence she told the judge: “Sorry it wasn’t very helpful but my memory’s not as good as it was.”
A second defendant - Martyn Smith, 32, a magician, was found not guilty of murdering Mr Farquhar, plotting to kill Miss Moore-Martin, fraud and burglary.
Ben Field's brother Tom, 24, was cleared of fraud.
