A former churchwarden who was jailed for life for the murder of a university lecturer today had his conviction quashed at the Court of Appeal.
Benjamin Field was jailed for at least 36 years in 2019 after being found guilty of murdering 69-year-old Peter Farquhar in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire.
Prosecutors told Field’s trial that he had driven Mr Farquhar to think he was losing his mind in order to inherit his house and money, secretly giving the pensioner tranquiliser drugs and spiking his whisky in the hope that his death in 2015 would look like suicide or an accident.
The case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission last year, with Field’s lawyers telling a hearing in March that there was ‘no evidence’ that Mr Farquhar was ‘forced or deceived’ into taking the whisky or medication.
In a ruling today, three senior judges quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial.
Lord Justice Edis, sitting with Mr Justice Goose and Mr Justice Butcher, also said that they would allow the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to take the ‘unusual case’ to the Supreme Court before any retrial takes place.
Field’s lawyers argued trial judge Mr Justice Sweeney misdirected jurors on how they should consider whether Field was guilty
David Jeremy KC said his client would have needed to force Mr Farquhar to ingest the whisky or medication to kill him but there was ‘no evidence’ of this.
He continued: ‘Mr Farquhar knew what he was being given and knew who he was being given it by.’
Mr Jeremy argued that there was a difference between giving Mr Farquhar the drink and forcing him to ingest it, saying it would be like ‘causing him to drive his car by handing him his car keys’.
He added: ‘In March 2021, this court allowed its moral disapproval of what Field had done to deflect it from its duty to apply the law and upheld Field’s conviction for doing something that on the evidence of that night he did not do, that is cause the death of Peter Farquhar.’
The case became the subject of the four-part 2023 BBC drama, called ‘The Sixth Commandment,’ featuring Timothy Spall as Mr Farquhar.
