Ben L. Field

Benjamin Luke Field is a British man who had been convicted of murdering retired teacher and author Peter Farquhar.^[1][2][3][4] On 16 April 2026 Field's conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal and judges ordered a retrial.^[5][6][7]

Field was a doctoral student and voluntary unpaid assistant churchwarden at Stowe Parish Church. He was undergoing the discernment process preparatory to the Bishops Advisory Panel (BAP), hoping to undertake training to be a priest.^[8][9]

Field was arrested in January 2018 on suspicion of murdering author Peter Farquhar and attempting to murder Ann Moore-Martin, 83.^{[10][11][12][13][14]}

Following his arrest, psychiatrists diagnosed Field as having either narcissistic personality disorder or psychopathic personality disorder.^[15][8]

On 9 August 2019, Field was convicted of the 2015 murder of Peter Farquhar, but acquitted of the attempted murder of Farquhar's neighbour Ann Moore-Martin, who died of natural causes on 12 May 2017. As part of the same trial Field had pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and burglary against the same two victims.^[16]

In October 2019, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 36 years.^[17]

Field first appealed against his conviction in March 2021. It was argued at the Court of Appeal that the trial judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, misdirected the jury over the 'chain of causation' involved in Mr Farquhar's death – specifically, whether the victim was 'tricked' by Field into drinking whisky, or had done so out of choice. The appeal was rejected.^[9][18]

In January 2022 he appealed a second time against his conviction, but this was also rejected.^[19][20]

In July 2023, Field applied for the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to investigate whether to refer his case to the Court of Appeal.^[9] The CCRC approved Field's request in September 2025 and announced that his case would be referred to the court to reconsider the causation issue.^[21] This was the first known instance of the CCRC referring a conviction to the Court of Appeal without new evidence being presented, as the Commission found there were "exceptional circumstances" which justified the referral.^[22]

Field's appeal was heard by the court on 5 March 2026, with judgement reserved until a later date. His lawyers argued there was no evidence that Farquhar had been forced or deceived into drinking the whisky and tranquilisers which killed him.^[23]

On 16 April 2026 Field's conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal and judges ordered a retrial. The judges allowed the Crown Prosecution Services to take the case to the Supreme Court before the retrial.^[5] The judges said that jurors at trial had "not been properly directed", were given "defective" directions on how to reach a verdict. Lord Justice Andrew Edis, delivering the ruling, said the trial judge "effectively withdrew from the jury the question of whether Mr Farquhar's decision to drink the whisky had been voluntary".^[24] Field will remain in prison while the appeal is still pending.^[7]

In August 2023, Field paid more than £124,000 to the families of Farquhar and Moore-Martin, after he was ordered to sell his flat in Towcester following a court confiscation order.^[25]

The Channel 4 documentary series Catching a Killer recounted the acts of Field in the fifth installment of the first series. The 90-minute episode, titled 'A Diary from the Grave', aired on 12 January 2020.^[26]

In 2021, a book by David Wilson, A Plot to Kill, was published about the murder.^[27]

In 2023, the circumstances surrounding Field's crimes were adapted into a BBC TV miniseries called The Sixth Commandment, with the actor Éanna Hardwicke playing Field. Timothy Spall plays Farquhar, Anne Reid plays neighbour Ann Moore-Martin, with Sheila Hancock playing another neighbour Liz Zettl.^[28][29]

In 2022 an episode of the crime documentary series Britain's Most Evil Killers featured the story of Ben Field and Peter Farquhar.^[30]