Church warden and magician go on trial over pensioners' deaths in Buckinghamshire village

A church warden - aided by a magician - murdered a university lecturer and tried to kill a retired headmistress in order to benefit from their wills, a court has heard.

Together with Martyn Smith, 32, Baptist minister's son Benjamin Field, 28, plotted the deaths of Peter Farquhar, 69, and Ann Moore-Martin, 83, and tried to make them look like an accident or suicide using drugs, alcohol or suffocation.

They have gone on trial at Oxford Crown Court accused of murder, conspiracy to murder and fraud, while Benjamin Field's younger brother Tom, 24, also faces an allegation of fraud.

The pensioners lived three doors from each other in the picturesque village of Maids Moreton, in Buckinghamshire.

Mr Farquhar, an author and guest lecturer at the University of Buckingham, died in October 2015, while retired teacher Miss Moore-Martin passed away 18 months later in May 2017.

Opening the case against them, Oliver Saxby QC, prosecuting, told the jury Benjamin Field's "project" was to befriend a vulnerable person, get them to change their will and then "make sure they died".

He alleged Benjamin Field and Smith murdered Mr Farquhar and conspired to murder Miss Moore-Martin, who later died from natural causes.

"The motive was financial gain - laced, as far as Benjamin Field is concerned, with a profound fascination in controlling and manipulating and humiliating and killing," he told the jury.

"The means were intricate - you will hear evidence of 'exit strategies', as he called them, involving drugging, and alcohol poisoning, and suffocation whilst asleep or sedated; and falls at home; and attempts to cause heart failure; car crashes, even; and unwitting overdoses.

Mr Saxby went on: "For Benjamin Field, this was a project: befriend a vulnerable individual, get them to change their will and then make sure they died.

"And it is a project he seems to have relished devising and managing and executing - and, to an extent, documenting - in various notes and diaries he made.

"Indeed, piecing things together, it is clear that his project became his life's work - a life's work of which he was proud and for which he admired himself.

"Peter Farquhar did die. Benjamin Field killed him. Almost certainly by suffocating him. Benjamin Field tried to kill Miss Moore-Martin. By a manner of means.

"But his 'exit strategy' for her was cut short. Because Miss Moore-Martin's niece became involved. And Miss Moore-Martin survived - only to die a little later from natural causes."

Mr Saxby said that Benjamin Field was assisted by Smith.

"It is not entirely clear what Benjamin Field made of Smith," Mr Saxby said.

"Indeed, it may be that you end up concluding that Benjamin Field is incapable of forming normal, empathetic friendships and relationships - he hinted as much in a recorded conversation with Smith after they had been arrested.

"But Smith was useful to him. And they became friends. And Smith lent Benjamin Field his assistance and support - in part because, like Benjamin Field, he was greedy, in part because he got carried away in Benjamin Field's world of plotting and deceit and death and in part because he was impressed by Benjamin Field, somewhat in his thrall - one witness describes Smith as a 'follower'."

Mr Saxby alleged that Tom Field defrauded Miss Moore-Martin.

"He became involved on the margins - in particular, in relation to a fraud the three of them perpetrated on Miss Moore-Martin, deceiving her into giving Benjamin Field #27,000 to buy a kidney dialysis on the false premise that Tom Field needed one to survive if he was to stay at university. When, in fact, he was fine," the prosecutor said.

"Tom Field's involvement comprised pretending to be extremely ill when he and Miss Moore-Martin met, playing up to the idea he was in mortal danger and in dire need of help."

Mr Saxby said there were other "antics" carried out by Benjamin Field, such as burgling the homes of elderly people and the planned deception of a 101-year-old woman.

"Like Peter Farquhar and Miss Moore-Martin, these were all people living locally to Benjamin Field and Smith," he said.

"And some shared something else in common: their names were on a long list prepared by Benjamin Field under the heading, 'clients'.

"In other words, potential sources of money."

Benjamin Field and Smith deny charges of murder, conspiracy to murder and possession of an article for the use in fraud.

Field, of Wellingborough Road, Olney, Buckinghamshire, also denies an alternative charge of attempted murder. But he has admitted four charges of fraud and two of burglary.

In addition, Smith, of Penhalvean, Redruth, Cornwall, denies two charges of fraud and one of burglary.

Tom Field, also of Wellingborough Road, Olney, Buckinghamshire, denies a single charge of fraud.