Benjamin Field, 28, killed Peter Farquhar, 69, and tried to make it look like accident or suicide

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A “cruel, calculating” church warden is facing life imprisonment after he was found guilty of murdering a university lecturer following a sustained campaign of physical and mental abuse.

Benjamin Field, 28, was convicted on Friday of killing Peter Farquhar, 69, a retired teacher and part-time university lecturer, for his money, and trying to make his death look like an accident or suicide.

After protracted deliberations, Field was cleared of a charge of conspiracy to murder 83-year-old Ann Moore-Martin, a retired headteacher who lived a few doors down from Farquhar, and also acquitted of her attempted murder.

His co-defendant, Martyn Smith, 32, was found not guilty of murdering Farquhar at Oxford crown court. The magician was also cleared of charges of conspiracy to murder and the attempted murder of Moore-Martin.

Field, a Baptist minister’s son, admitted to poisoning, gaslighting and defrauding Farquhar in order to get a better job and inherit his wealth when he died. He told the court he had also deceived and manipulated Moore-Martin in a similar way. While the 28-year-old accepted he had “psychologically manipulated” the pair, he denied any involvement in their deaths.

Q&A What is gaslighting? Show Hide Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person – often a woman – is made to question their own perception of reality through deception and the withholding of information. The term derives from the 1938 play Gas Light, in which a husband attempts to convince his wife of her own insanity in order to distract her from his criminal behaviour. The play was twice adapted for film, first in a 1940 British production, and later in a 1944 Hollywood version that starred Ingrid Bergman. While the term ‘gaslighting’ has been present in academic literature and some colloquial use since the 1960s, it is only in recent times that it has come into common usage with the rise of social media. It has been a recurring subject in popular culture, with films, TV series and radio serials such as The Girl on the Train, Jessica Jones and The Archers including storylines that feature the trope. The term has also been used in political commentary, most frequently in reference to the US president, Donald Trump, who has been accused of gaslighting US citizens with frequent lies and misinformation. In May 2018, Theresa May suggested that she would seek to strengthen UK laws on gaslighting after the death of the daughter of the Commons deputy speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

During the trial, jurors were told of Field’s elaborate project of first befriending the individuals, who were vulnerable and lonely, then defrauding them by allowing them to think he was in a loving relationship with them, and encouraging them to change their will to benefit him. He then began a devastating campaign of physical and mental torture.

The Crown Prosecution Service said the case was like a “plot from a novel”.

Field drew up a list of 100 future “targets”, including his own parents and grandparents, the court heard. He told the jury the “100 clients” file was not just a list of future targets but of people who could help him.

The senior investigating officer, Mark Glover, said Field fitted the profile of a psychopath. “Cruel, calculating, manipulative, deceitful. I don’t think evil is too strong a word for him.”

Glover said Field had taken pleasure in tormenting Farquhar and torturing him physically and mentally, adding: “Everything is about Ben Field and Ben Field’s gain.”

Ann Moore-Martin died in May 2017. Photograph: Thames Valley police

Field and Smith were accused of murdering Farquhar in the village of Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, in October 2015 and later targeting Moore-Martin, who died in May 2017 of natural causes.

Prosecutors alleged that Field, who had undergone a “betrothal” ceremony with Farquhar, had a “profound fascination in controlling and manipulating and humiliating and killing”.

They argued Field had come up with an “intricate” plot, including drugging, alcohol poisoning, suffocation, falls, attempts to cause heart failure, car crashes and unwitting overdoses.

Field and Smith met Farquhar when they were students at Buckingham University. They struck up a friendship and began lodging with him.

Oliver Saxby QC, the lead prosecutor, told the jury that Field saw “Peter was vulnerable. And this was something, from the very outset, he decided to exploit.”

Farquhar with facial injuries sustained in a fall after he was drugged by Field. Photograph: Abell Jack/Thames Valley police

Field and Farquhar soon entered into a relationship and had a formal ceremony, which they called a betrothal ceremony. In one diary entry, Farquhar described the event as “one of the happiest moments of my life. Gone are the fears of dying alone.”

Moore-Martin lived a few doors away from Farquhar. Like him, she was unmarried and had no children. Saxby told the court she was “fundamentally lonely”.

Prosecutors argued that Field and Smith embarked on a campaign of gaslighting to get Moore-Martin to question her sanity. They hid things around her house and encouraged thoughts of suicide, the jury was told. Both defendants also wrote messages on Moore-Martin’s mirrors at home that were “biblical in nature”, telling her to leave her house to Field.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ben Field taking a photo of his writings on a mirror. Photograph: Thames Valley police

Chris Derrick, the head of the complex casework unit at the Crown Prosecution Service’s Thames-Chiltern office, said: “I think torture is a word that can be used to described Benjamin Field’s behaviour. He is clearly a very calculating and ruthless man who spent a great deal of time planning what he was going to do.”

Field denied murdering Farquhar, maintaining he could have died from taking his usual dose of flurazepam and drinking whisky. He admitted to defrauding Moore-Martin of £4,000 to buy a car.

Smith told the jury he was unaware that Field was in a relationship with Farquhar or that he was gaslighting and defrauding him. He also said he had no idea he was a beneficiary of Farquhar’s will.

In a statement released by his solicitor, Smith said: “I am relieved that this ordeal is finally over.”

Thanking his legal team, friends and family for their support, he added: “The lessons I take from this case are first and foremost to always be your own person and secondly to always choose your friends very carefully.”

Farquhar’s brother, Ian, said: “Listening to the trial and hearing Ben Field give his evidence about what he did to Peter has been extremely difficult. His actions have been unbelievably callous, and he has told lie after lie after lie in order to achieve his goals, deceiving everyone he met.”

Moore-Martin’s niece Ann-Marie Blake paid tribute to her aunt in a statement. “Aunty Ann was the core of our family. She wasn’t just an aunt but a mum, grandmother and aunt all rolled into one. Our lives have all been changed forever and the world is a much darker place without her.”

Field’s brother Tom, 24, was cleared of a single charge of fraud.

Tom Field did not give evidence in the trial and his barrister argued the prosecution’s own evidence demonstrated he had no case to answer.

Benjamin Field showed no emotion as the jury forewoman returned the verdicts. When his brother, who was on bail, was released from the dock he hugged his parents.

Mr Justice Sweeney adjourned sentencing until a pre-sentence psychiatric report had been carried out.