THE MY STERY DEEPENS Tantalising new clues in village double death riddle Preacher suspect’s ‘thou shalt not kill’ sermon Devout Christian died of acute alcohol poisoning

VILLAGERS stunned by the sudden loss of two pillars of their community were left reeling yesterday after police revealed details of the two pensioners’ sudden deaths.

Neighbours Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin died within 18 months of each other in the Buckinghamshire village of Maids Moreton.

A coroner ruled that Mr Farquhar, 69, a Cambridge-educated teacher, lecturer and novelist, died from acute alcohol intoxication.

But a year later, police were called in over suspicions that the ‘inspirational’ scholar may have been the victim of a complex fraud, and this week they arrested three young men. They also discovered Mr Farquhar’s neighbour, former Catholic primary school headmistress Mrs Moore-Martin, 83, had fallen seriously ill.

And they found both pensioners were linked by lecturer Ben Field, 27, the son of a Baptist minister, who lodged with them both rent-free.

Within weeks of Mrs Moore-Martin’s death last May, detectives were quietly contacting relatives to ask them about the young preacher.

On Tuesday, Thames Valley Police dramatically went public as officers arrested Field and amateur magician Martyn Smith, 31, on suspicion of murder, fraud and burglary. They also questioned Field’s brother Thomas, 22, on suspicion of fraud. He was released last night.

As detectives try to untangle the mystery, extraordinary new details about the case have emerged:

Was the alcohol poisoning an accident?

A coroner ruled Mr Farquhar died accidentally from ‘acute alcohol intoxication’ after his body was found in October 2015.

Richard Hulett, who has since retired as Buckinghamshire coroner, recorded a verdict of accidental death. A pathologist found the respected academic had consumed a vast quantity of alcohol, something which perplexed his neighbours. They questioned whether the devout Christian could have been a secret heavy drinker.

After his death, fellow worshippers at St Mary’s in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, said they believed he had died in his sleep after a short illness.

Whether Mr Farquhar drank the alcohol himself or was plied with it by a third party is part of the Thames Valley Police major crime team investigation. They are examining the relationship between two of the suspects who ‘flattered’ Mr Farquhar by planning to make a documentary about his life.

Ben Field and Martyn Smith, who also established the company Farquhar Studies to sell his unpublished works, said they wanted to bring his career to a wider audience. The programme, intended to be shown on television, was given the working title The Moral of the Story: The Literature of Peter Farquhar.

Neighbours said the pair lived with Mr Farquhar rent-free, and he complained that his finances were stretched. It was during this time that his health deteriorated, with doctors conducting tests but struggling to identify the problem.

At one stage he was admitted to a hospice, where Mr Field worked part-time as a carer.

One neighbour said: ‘Martyn then moved in about a year before he died. They were living there for free. They didn’t contribute to food or anything and Peter said it was leaving him out of pocket.

‘He had all sorts of symptoms and kept going into hospital, they did countless tests but could never figure out what it was.

‘He kept saying, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Then he would get better and go home again only to start getting sick again.’

Police dig up a garden

Police forensic teams were yesterday digging up the garden of the Field brothers’ father, Ian, a Baptist minister who lives in a churchowned property in nearby Olney, Buckinghamshire.

‘They seemed to be searching the house and then they started digging up the garden,’ a neighbour said. ‘It was mostly laid to grass and they made quite a mess. Nobody seems to know what they were looking for.’

Suspect’s intriguing sermon on killing

Ben Field was a passionate Christian preacher who once delivered a sermon on the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’.

He asked worshippers whether this law was applicable if death would bring ‘an end to people’s miserable condition’ or for ‘the greater good’.

The sermon, given at Olney Baptist Church on October 29, was recorded and posted on the church’s website, along with those of his father’s, the Rev Ian Field.

Mrs Moore-Martin had died five months previously, while Mr Farquhar died in October 2015.

Yesterday, Field’s sermon was

deleted from the church’ s homepage. In it, he said: ‘Thou shalt not kill: some people say we should not because it is illegal, or because it violates property rights, or other rights of the individual.

‘But what about as an end to people’s miserable conditions or for the greater good? What about preventing death against a patient’s consent, or will, or volition.

‘Questions in medical ethics are just one area where it quickly gets difficult. And I am not going to tell you what you should think.’

Field said ‘legally enforced norms’ were less important than one’s personal convictions, adding: ‘Goodness is its own reward, and wrong never goes unpunished.’

Field occupied several respected positions at st Mary’s, which he joined in 2013 and where he was confirmed two years later.

he was removed as parish council secretary and deputy warden when the clergy became aware of the police inquiry last March. The Diocese of Oxford said: ‘he was removed from both posts by st Mary’s in March 2017, following concerns raised with the Church. he is no longer a member of the congregation. The Diocese of Oxford has been assisting Thames Valley Police.’

The new flat

Ben Field bought his flat mortgagefree just months before he was arrested, it emerged last night.

he outbid several interested parties to secure the one-bedroom ground-floor property in Towcester, Northamptonshire.

Field had been lodging with Mr Farquhar at his detached property before moving in with neighbour Mrs Moore-Martin. he agreed a purchase price of £97,500 for his new property last February. The deal was completed in July.

Land registry documents – which make no mention of a mortgage on the leasehold property – list him as the owner as of september 1. Neighbours said he moved in shortly afterwards. Yesterday the former owner of the flat said it had been marketed by a local estate agent on an ‘offers over’ basis, and Mr Field secured it by making the highest bid.

Liz Carpenter, 63, said: ‘We had a fair bit of interest in the flat but his was the best offer. It was bought without a mortgage, as I recall.’

The door to the ground-floor flat remains boarded up after he was escorted away by police during a dawn raid on Tuesday. A neighbour in the block of ten apartments said he had seen Mr Field ‘merrily’ leaving the address on Monday night. he looked like he didn’t have a care in the world.’

The last-minute will

Mrs Moore-Martin made a new will just three months before her unexplained death last May. In it, the devout Catholic appointed her sister-in-law as executor and asked for her body to be buried with her mother in Buckingham Cemetery.

she left the bulk of her £380,000 estate, including her home, to her niece and gifted £5,000 to her niece’s young daughter. her funeral was held at All saints Church in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire.