Benjamin Field Murder Conviction Quashed by Court of Appeal
Benjamin Field, 35, a former churchwarden previously handed a minimum 36-year prison sentence for the murder of university lecturer Peter Farquhar, 69, in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, in 2015, has had his conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal.
On Thursday, senior judges ordered a retrial, stating that jurors at Oxford Crown Court had not been 'properly directed' concerning evidence related to Mr Farquhar consuming spiked whisky. However, Lord Justice Edis, presiding with Mr Justice Goose and Mr Justice Butcher, granted the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) permission to take this 'unusual case' to the Supreme Court. Field will remain in prison while the Supreme Court appeal is pending.
Details of the Case
Prosecutors at Field's 2019 trial contended he spiked Mr Farquhar's whisky to induce mental deterioration, aiming to inherit his property and finances. Field's legal team, however, argued before the Court of Appeal last month that there was 'no evidence' Mr Farquhar was 'forced or deceived' into consuming the whisky or medication before his death.
Jurors in Oxford had been told that Field 'suffocated' Mr Farquhar when he was too weak to resist, leaving a partially consumed whisky bottle to suggest an alcohol-related death. The Criminal Cases Review Commission referred Field's conviction under exceptional circumstances.
Alongside his life sentence for murder, Field received a concurrent 16-year term for admitting fraud and burglary offences related to Mr Farquhar and a neighbour, Ann Moore-Martin, 83. Field, from Olney, Buckinghamshire, also targeted Ms Moore-Martin, a retired headteacher, manipulating her with messages on mirrors purporting to be from God. He admitted fraudulently entering relationships with both pensioners to alter their wills. He was acquitted of conspiracy to murder Ms Moore-Martin and an alternative charge of attempted murder. Ms Moore-Martin died of natural causes in May 2017.
The CPS opposed the appeal, with KC David Perry stating: 'He was, at all times, playing his part in causing the death both as a matter of common sense and as a matter of law.'