A life sentence for murder has been overturned after appeal judges ruled that jurors were given “defective” directions that prevented them from properly considering whether the victim’s actions were voluntary, potentially paving the way for a retrial in the high-profile case.
Three senior judges at the Court of Appeal quashed Benjamin Field’s conviction on Thursday, nearly six years after he was imprisoned for at least 36 years following his 2019 trial at Oxford Crown Court. The ruling centres on how the jury was instructed to evaluate evidence regarding Peter Farquhar’s whisky consumption.
Lord Justice Edis stated the trial directions “effectively withdrew from the jury the question of whether Mr Farquhar’s decision to drink the whisky had been voluntary,” adding that the Crown Prosecution Service should take the “unusual case” to the Supreme Court before any retrial proceeds. Field will remain imprisoned pending that appeal.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission had referred the conviction to the Court of Appeal last year following representations from Field’s legal team, who argued at a March hearing that “no evidence” existed proving the 69-year-old university lecturer was “forced or deceived” into consuming alcohol or medication.
Prosecutors at the original trial alleged Field had orchestrated an elaborate scheme to inherit Mr Farquhar’s property and finances by exploiting the lecturer’s internal conflict over his sexuality. Field, the son of a Baptist minister, met Mr Farquhar in April 2011 whilst studying and subsequently entered into a relationship that led to engagement, the court heard.
The Crown’s case maintained Field had systematically laced Mr Farquhar’s food and whisky with tranquilliser drugs to induce mental confusion, hoping his eventual death would appear as suicide or accident. Mr Farquhar was discovered deceased at his Maids Moreton home in Buckinghamshire in October 2015.
An inquest initially attributed the death to alcohol-related causes, with police only treating the matter as murder from March 2017 onwards. Following Mr Farquhar’s death, Field inherited half the property and purchased a flat in Towcester, which he was compelled to sell in 2023 to compensate Mr Farquhar’s family and that of neighbour Ann Moore-Martin, whom Field admitted defrauding.
The case inspired BBC drama “The Sixth Commandment,” featuring Timothy Spall and Anne Reid, which examined the relationship between Field and his victims.
