The Court of Appeal has overturned the murder conviction of Benjamin Field, the former church warden jailed in 2019 for the death of university lecturer Peter Farquhar, in a significant ruling that reopens one of the UK’s most complex criminal cases.
Field, 34, had been serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 36 years after being found guilty of murdering Mr Farquhar, 69, at his home in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, in October 2015.
Prosecutors at the original trial alleged that Field manipulated and deceived Mr Farquhar - whom he had entered into a relationship with - before spiking his food and whisky with tranquillisers in a bid to inherit his house and wealth.
However, senior judges at the Court of Appeal ruled that the jury in the 2019 trial had not been properly directed, making the conviction unsafe. A retrial has now been ordered.
Delivering the judgment, Lord Justice Edis said the instructions given to jurors were “defective”, particularly in how they addressed the key issue of whether Mr Farquhar had voluntarily consumed alcohol. He said the directions “effectively withdrew from the jury the question” of whether the lecturer’s drinking had been a voluntary act.
This issue formed a central plank of Field’s appeal. His legal team argued there was no evidence that Mr Farquhar had been forced or deceived into consuming alcohol or medication prior to his death.
The case had been referred back to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission under exceptional circumstances provisions, which allow appeals even in the absence of new evidence. Judges also indicated that the Crown Prosecution Service may take the unusual step of referring the case to the Supreme Court before any retrial proceeds.
Field will remain in custody while any further legal action is considered.
The original trial heard how Field, the son of a Baptist minister, met Mr Farquhar in 2011 while a student and began a relationship with him, allegedly exploiting the older man’s personal vulnerabilities. After Mr Farquhar’s death, Field inherited part of his estate.
Field also admitted to defrauding Mr Farquhar’s neighbour, Ann Moore-Martin, an 83-year-old retired headteacher. He created messages he claimed were from God as part of a scheme to persuade her to change her will in his favour. He was convicted of fraud in relation to both victims but cleared of attempting to murder Ms Moore-Martin.
An earlier inquest concluded that Mr Farquhar’s death was alcohol-related, and it was not initially treated as suspicious by police. Detectives only began investigating it as a potential murder in 2017, nearly two years after his death.
With the conviction now quashed, the case is set to return to court, where a new jury may be asked to reconsider the evidence surrounding Mr Farquhar’s death.
