Church warden, 28, ‘murdered lecturer, 69, and plotted to kill ex-headmistress, 83, after having sex with BOTH of them to get in their wills’
A CHURCH warden murdered a lecturer and planned on killing a retired headmistress after having a sexual relationship with both of them in order to get in their wills, a court heard.
Benjamin Field, 28, plotted the deaths of Peter Farquhar, 69, and Ann Moore-Martin, 83, and tried to make them look like an accident or suicide using drugs, alcohol or suffocation, it is alleged.
He was allegedly aided by magician Martyn Smith, 32, with the pair now on trial at Oxford Crown Court accused of murder, conspiracy to murder and fraud, while Benjamin Field’s younger brother Tom, 24, also faces an allegation of fraud.
The pensioners in question lived three doors apart in the picturesque village of Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire.
Mr Farquhar, an author and guest lecturer at the University of Buckingham, died in October 2015, while retired teacher Miss Moore-Martin passed away in May 2017.
SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS
Field and Smith, the court heard, encouraged Mr Farquhar to drink more alcohol, although he was just a social drinker, so that it looked like his decline was all down to him becoming a sad alcoholic.
They also encouraged him to commit suicide.
Oliver Saxby QC, prosecuting, said: “In time, Mr Field and Mr Farquhar entered into a relationship together. There was the form of ‘marriage’ ceremony.
“They shared a bed. One or two of Mr Farquhar’s journal entries suggest the relationship became a sexual one, at least to a degree.”
The court also heard that Field had written a list of methods he would use to “get rid of” Ms Moore-Martin while making it look like “self-euthanasia”, including heart attack, dehydration, sex and church tower.
Field had entered into a full-blown sexual relationship with the 83-year-old, proven by a photograph he took of her performing a sexual act on him without her knowledge, the court heard.
SICK ‘PROJECT’
Saxby told the jury Benjamin Field’s “project” was to befriend a vulnerable person, get them to change their will and then “make sure they died”.
He alleged Benjamin Field and Smith murdered Mr Farquhar and conspired to murder Miss Moore-Martin, who later died from natural causes.
Saxby said: “The motive was financial gain — laced, as far as Benjamin Field is concerned, with a profound fascination in controlling and manipulating and humiliating and killing.”
The prosecution said Field called his methods “exit strategies” which included drugging, alcohol poisoning, car crashes, and other means of killing.
Saxby added: “The common theme: death made to look like accident or suicide — an elderly, ailing life coming to a sad but predictable end.”
TWISTED ENJOYMENT
He said of Field’s plans: “It is a project he seems to have relished devising and managing and executing — and, to an extent, documenting — in various notes and diaries he made.
“Peter Farquhar did die. Benjamin Field killed him. Almost certainly by suffocating him. Benjamin Field tried to kill Miss Moore-Martin.
“But his ‘exit strategy’ for her was cut short, because Miss Moore-Martin’s niece became involved. And Miss Moore-Martin survived — only to die a little later from natural causes.”
Mr Saxby said that Benjamin Field was assisted by Smith.
He said: “Smith lent Benjamin Field his assistance and support — in part because, like Benjamin Field, he was greedy, in part because he got carried away in Benjamin Field’s world of plotting and deceit and death and in part because he was impressed by Benjamin Field, somewhat in his thrall — one witness describes Smith as a ‘follower’.”
YOUNGER BROTHER’S ROLE
Mr Saxby alleged that Tom Field defrauded Miss Moore-Martin.
He said: “He became involved on the margins — in particular, in relation to a fraud the three of them perpetrated on Miss Moore-Martin, deceiving her into giving Benjamin Field £27,000 to buy a kidney dialysis on the false premise that Tom Field needed one to survive if he was to stay at university. When, in fact, he was fine.
Tom would pretend to be extremely ill when he and Miss Moore-Martin met, it was claimed.
Mr Saxby said there were other “antics” carried out by Benjamin Field, such as burgling the homes of elderly people and the planned deception of a 101-year-old woman.
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Benjamin Field and Smith deny charges of murder, conspiracy to murder and possession of an article for the use in fraud.
Field, of Wellingborough Road, Olney, Buckinghamshire, also denies an alternative charge of attempted murder. But he has admitted four charges of fraud and two of burglary.
In addition, Smith, of Penhalvean, Redruth, Cornwall, denies two charges of fraud and one of burglary.
Tom Field, also of Wellingborough Road, Olney, Buckinghamshire, denies a single charge of fraud.
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