Preacher son led ‘gaslight plot’ to kill pensioners
Court told friends planned seduction of gay lecturer and retired headmistress to inherit their homes
THE son of a Baptist minister murdered an elderly lecturer as part of an elaborate “gaslighting” plot to seduce pensioners, kill them and keep their homes, a court heard.
Ben Field and his alleged accomplice Martyn Smith, a part-time magician, are accused of conspiring to kill Peter Farquhar, 69, and retired headmistress Ann Moore-martin, 83, in the quiet village of Maids Moreton, Bucks.
Mr Field, 28, gradually deceived both into falling in love with him before persuading them to alter their wills in his favour, it is alleged.
Using a psychological technique known as “gaslighting”, he convinced the pensioners they were losing their minds while secretly drugging them and planning their deaths so he could inherit their homes, jurors were told.
Mr Field devised the elaborate “project” while Mr Smith, 32, was his willing follower, jurors were told.
When the pair were arrested, Mr Smith had moved in with another elderly woman, now aged 101, and had secured a copy of her will, the trial was told. Officers then found a long list of other pensioners that the pair planned to target for money, labelled “clients”.
Plans were also discovered for what Mr Field called “exit strategies” – possible murder methods including car crashes, unwitting overdoses and “accidental” heart failure during sex. Oliver Saxby QC, prosecuting, said: “The motive was financial gain – laced, as far as Ben Field is concerned, with a profound fascination in controlling ... and humiliating and killing.
“If he was to inherit their houses, they had to die.”
Their first target was Mr Farquhar, a “highly respected” former head of English at Stowe school.
Jurors were told that Mr Field met Mr Farquhar in 2011, after becoming an English student at Buckingham University, where the retired teacher was a part-time lecturer. Mr Field and Mr Smith soon began lodging at his home.
At the time Mr Farquhar was a respected figure with a large circle of friends, but he was also “torn” about his homosexuality, which he had kept secret for years, the court heard.
Mr Field allegedly decided to exploit his loneliness, with Mr Smith’s help. He began a relationship with the older man and started sleeping in his bed. Mr Farquhar’s writings suggested the relationship became sexual, jurors heard.
The pair then became “betrothed” at a formal ceremony, after which Mr Farquhar wrote: “It is one of the happiest moments of my life. Gone are the fears of dying alone.”
A private email written by Mr Field around that time betrayed different intentions, the court heard. In it he described Mr Farquhar as a “closeted, Christian, homosexual, English teaching pedant, with a seriously problematic attraction to teens”.
Mr Farquhar was besotted, however, and was soon persuaded to alter his will so that his home would pass to Mr Field after his death.
Prosecutors allege that Mr Field then began secretly slipping sedatives into Mr Farquhar’s drinks to make it appear as if he was falling into the grip of “crippling” alcoholism. Friends soon began to notice Mr Farquhar’s decline into a “dribbling shambles of his former self ”.
Mr Field would also hide Mr Farquhar’s possessions, then pretend to find them. The older man began to believe that he was “losing his mind”, jurors were told. It was a classic example of so-called “gaslighting”, Mr Saxby said.
The term comes from Gaslight, a Patrick Hamilton play, in which a man dims the lights in his home while convincing his wife she is imagining it.
“Nobody knew they were drugging him,” Mr Saxby added.
Mr Farquhar was eventually taken into a care home, where his condition markedly improved, it was said. Shortly after returning home, however, he was found dead at home in October 2016.
“Peter Farquhar did die. Ben Field killed him. Almost certainly by suffocating him,” Mr Saxby told jurors.
A coroner concluded, however, that Mr Farquhar had died from alcohol-related causes. Mr Field duly collected his inheritance, a life interest in Mr Farquhar’s home plus £20,000, while Mr Smith was left £10,000.
The pair then allegedly moved on to their next target, Ann Moore-martin, a deeply religious retired head teacher who lived three doors down the road.
Like Mr Farquhar, the 83-year-old was unmarried, childless and lonely. Flattered by the attentions of a man 57 years younger, she soon fell in love and embarked on a full-blown sexual relationship, prosecutors said.
Soon, though, Mr Field began to leave Biblical messages written in white marker on her mirrors, suggesting it was the “will of the Lord” that she should leave her house to him. She told a friend that Mr Field was giving her “white powder” to help her sleep. Eventually, she agreed to alter her will to leave her home to Mr Field.
However a solicitor and Mrs Moore’s concerned niece both raised the alarm and the police were called.
Mr Farquhar’s body was exhumed and a second autopsy found traces of sedatives in his hair. Mrs Moore-martin reversed the changes to her will, but died in a care home shortly afterwards, apparently from natural causes.
“The common theme: Death made to look like accident or suicide – an elderly, ailing life coming to a sad but predictable end,” Mr Saxby told jurors.
Mr Field and Mr Smith deny charges of murder, conspiracy to murder and possession of an article for use in fraud. Mr Field also denies an alternative charge of attempted murder. He has admitted four charges of fraud and two of burglary. Mr Smith also denies two counts of fraud and one of burglary.
The trial continues.