Death of Scot originally ruled accidental now possible murder probe

A SCOTS academic, whose former students are being held in relation to his possible murder, was originally ruled to have died from alcohol poisoning, it has emerged.

Peter Farquhar, 60, died in October 2015 and a coroner ruled a month later that the death had been an accident.

But, following the death of his 83-year-old neighbour and close friend Ann Moore Martin 18 months later, police became suspicious that neither had died from natural causes.

They subsequently discovered large sums of money had disappeared from the accounts of both pensioners.

Three men have now been arrested in relation to the two deaths, in the Buckinghamshire village of Maids Moreton.

Two of the men – a 27-year-old from Towcester, Northamptonshire, and a 31-year-old from Redruth in Cornwall – were detained on suspicion of two counts of murder and conspiracy to murder, two counts of fraud and one count of burglary.

The third, a 22-year-old from Milton Keynes, was arrested on suspicion of a number of counts of fraud.

The 27-year-old, named as Ben Field, a deputy church warden, was a former lodger of Mr Farquhar and, along with 31-year-old Martyn Smith, a magician, had set up a company to publish and promote unpublished works by Mr Farquhar, who lectured in English literature at the University of Buckingham, having retired after 34 years teaching in private schools.

They were also believed to have looked after him in the last years of his life, and the academic’s third novel, a Wide Wide Sea was dedicated to the pair.

After Mr Farquhar’s rapid decline, Mr Field moved in to stay with Ms Moore-Martin before she, too, died.

The third man detained by police is reported to be Mr Field’s brother, Thomas.

Channel 4 News political reporter Michael Crick, who was a pupil of Mr Farquhar at Manchester Grammar School described him as “one of he most extraordinary teachers of my life”, and “something of a father figure” and Tweeted that the murder investigation was “distressing and extraordinary”.

He was something of a father figure