The Sixth Commandment: The killer who duped victims into rewriting wills (2024)

An author was murdered in a Buckinghamshire village in 2015 by a churchwarden who went on to defraud the victim's elderly neighbour. The shocking case is now being re-told in the BBC TV drama The Sixth Commandment. How was the killer caught?

But under the surface lurked a sinister plot to dupe the vulnerable by manipulating them into fake relationships and then getting them to change their wills.

Field is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Peter Farquhar in Maids Moreton. He was found not guilty of plotting to kill Mr Farquhar's neighbour Ann Moore-Martin but admitted defrauding her.

Who were the victims?

Both Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin were religious, single and without children.

Peter Farquhar retired as Stowe School's head of English in 2004 and was invited to be a guest lecturer at the University of Buckingham, where he met student Field.

During the court case, the jury heard how Mr Farquhar had a wide circle of friends but he was lonely and, as a gay man, he struggled with his sexuality, regarding it as incompatible with his Anglican faith.

In Field, he thought he had found someone to love and grow old with and the pair had undergone a "betrothal" ceremony in 2014.

Retired head teacher, Ann Moore-Martin, lived a few doors away from him.

A regular churchgoer, she was Catholic and also had friends aplenty but was very private. She was close to her niece, so much so, they regarded each other as mother and daughter.

Miss Moore-Martin's sister-in-law said she seemed hypnotised by Field, like "a love-struck teenager".

What happened to them?

Field seduced both Mr Farquhar and Miss Moore-Martin.

They were besotted with him and he used their devotion to get them to change their wills.

At Field's trial in 2019, it was revealed that he had carried out a sustained "gaslighting" plot aimed at making Mr Farquhar question his sanity.

He moved things around the house making his victim irritated and confused and also drugged his drinks and food.

Mr Farquhar was tormented by this "mystery illness" and saw a number of doctors, but Field told health workers the retired lecturer was "a frequent faller" who probably had dementia.

Mr Farquhar changed his will, naming Field as the main beneficiary and giving him a life interest in his house.

Mr Farquhar died in 2015. He was discovered in his living room by his cleaner, a half empty bottle of whisky beside him.

His friends thought he had drunk himself to death - as did the coroner, who certified the cause of death as acute alcohol intoxication.

Field, who had been introduced to Miss Moore-Martin by Mr Farquhar, then took advantage of her loneliness and they developed a sexual relationship.

He gave her a number of items so she would feel closer to him, including a framed picture of him with the words "I am always with you" written in capitals beneath his image.

She gave him £4,400 when he lied to her about needing a new car and handed over £27,000 for a dialysis machine when he told her his younger brother was seriously ill with a kidney condition.

Field also wrote messages on her mirror, some of which told her to leave her house to him, in the hope she would believe they were messages from God.

It worked.

In February 2017, Miss Moore-Martin became ill and suffered a seizure. She died in May 2017 of natural causes.

When did police get involved?

During a hospital stay following the seizure, Miss Moore-Martin confided in her niece about her relationship with Field and the writing on the mirrors. The police became involved and an investigation started.

She reversed her will and changed it back to benefit her family before she died in a care home.

The police established the link between Field, Miss Moore-Martin and Mr Farquhar and 19 months after the latter's death a decision was taken to exhume his body.

A second post-mortem examination established he had consumed less alcohol than had been thought and there were sedatives in his system.

Field was arrested and admitted duping both Mr Farquhar and Miss Moore-Martin into fake relationships as part of a plot to get them to change their wills. But Field denied any involvement in their deaths.

What came out in court?

Oxford Crown Court jurors heard how Mr Farquhar's drinks were spiked with bioethanol and poteen, a high strength Irish alcohol, while his food was laced with drugs.

He recorded in his journal how he was suffering night terrors and hallucinations.

Prosecutors said that after Mr Farquhar changed his will three times in two years to benefit Field, he "had to die".

The court heard Field "suffocated him" when he was too weak to resist and left the half-empty bottle of whisky in Mr Farquhar's room to make it seem he had drunk himself to death.

Jurors also heard that during Miss Moore-Martin's stay in hospital, Field tried to visit her but he was denied access and complained to the police. He admitted he had made the calls to see how much the police knew about him and whether he was in trouble.

What happened to Ben Field?

Field was convicted of Mr Farquhar's murder on August 2019 after a 10-week trial.

He had previously pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud relating to the fake relationships and defrauding Miss Moore-Martin. He also admitted two counts of burglary.

Field was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 36 years.

Sentencing him, Mr Justice Sweeney said Field was a "well-practised and able liar" and a "dangerous offender".

Mark Glover, who led the Thames Valley Police investigation into his crimes, summed him up: "Ben Field is all about Ben Field and nobody else."

He said Field was "unlike any other criminal" he had encountered.

"The extent of his planning, deception and cruelty towards his victims is frankly staggering, and I do not believe he has ever shown an ounce of remorse or contrition," he said.

"If he is sorry for anything it is that he got caught."

Failed appeals

In June 2020, a proceeds of crime hearing ordered Field to pay more than £146,000 to his victims' families - £123,111.26 to Mr Farquhar's family and £23,449.76 to the family of Miss Moore-Martin.

His barrister, David Jeremy QC, told the Court of Appeal the conviction was "unsafe" as the trial judge misdirected the jury.

The appeal was dismissed with a written ruling saying that "the approach of the judge was correct".

"The judge's directions captured the essence of the issue in a clear and admirably succinct manner," the ruling said.

And now a BBC TV drama...

The four-part drama written by Sarah Phelps features Timothy Spall as Peter Farquhar and Anne Reid as Ann Moore-Martin.

She added that she "didn't want Ben Field to be the main character" and instead focused on telling "Peter and Ann's story".

"I wanted to make it clear that their lives really mattered before Ben Field came along," she said, and that it was "important that we understand how these really intelligent people were deceived".

The four-part drama started on BBC One at 21:00 BST on 17 July and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.