Who is Ben Field and where is he now?
BEN FIELD shocked the nation when his heinous crime was uncovered, years after the death of Peter Farquhar.
The former pallbearer and his evil ways are now set to be explored in an upcoming drama series.
Who is Ben Field?
Ben Field was a church warden who, in 2019, was found guilty of the murder of his elderly lover, Peter Farquhar.
The pair met while novelist Peter was a guest lecturer at the University of Buckingham.
Then, in 2014, Peter and Field exchanged knives at a betrothal ceremony.
That same year Farquhar changed his will, leaving his half of his house and a sum of money to Field, and appointing him his literary agent.
Following Field’s sentencing for the murder of Farquhar, The Sun revealed that he had up to 100 more potential victims.
As well as the church, Field also worked at a care home.
Cops who found his list of elderly “clients” fear he was plotting to kill them all — as well as his parents, grandparents and brother.
What did Ben Field do to Peter Farquhar?
On October 26, 2015, Farquhar died aged 69 in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire.
His death was not initially treated as suspicious and his friends and family believed he had died in his sleep after a short illness.
When his neighbour Ann Moore-Martin, 83, died in similar circumstances two years later, however, it sparked a double murder investigation.
Police then discovered Field’s awful crime.
Evil Field had killed Farquhar after making him believe he was going insane, in order to inherit his house and money.
He had spiked Peter’s food with hallucinogenic party drug 2-CB and sedatives, and filmed disturbing footage of Peter to convince doctors he had dementia.
Peter suffered powerful hallucinations – including seeing “hideous black insects” and being “attacked by rays of light.”
His drinks were also spiked with pure alcohol so friends believed he was an alcoholic.
Field then smothered Peter and tried to make it look like he drank himself to death.
Cops branded Field a psychopath and said he would have posed an “ongoing danger to society” had he not been stopped.
Where is Ben Field now?
As of 2023, Field is in prison.
In 2019 he was jailed for life with a minimum of 36 years after being found guilty of murder at Oxford Crown Court.
Field’s co-accused Martyn Smith, who had received £10,000 from Peter’s will, was cleared of murdering Farquhar.
Field, meanwhile, had taken £20,000 from the will and a further £140,000 from selling his lover’s home.
Field was accused of planning the murder of Moore-Martin, an ex-headmistress who lived three doors away from Peter, but was found not guilty.
He denied any involvement in Farquhar and Moore-Martin’s deaths, but admitted duping them into fake relationships to get them to change their wills.
While sentencing Field, Mr Justice Sweeney said: “The evidence at trial clearly demonstrated grandiosity, a sense of superiority towards others, the exploitation of others to achieve personal gain, the need to belittle and humiliate others, fixation on fantasies of power and success, intelligence, a need for admiration from others, and a sense of entitlement together with an unwillingness to empathise with the feelings, needs and wishes of others.”
In January 2022, Field began a second bid to have his conviction overturned.
A previous challenge to his conviction had been dismissed in 2021.
In June 2023, the BBC released the first pictures from their four-part dramatisation of Farquhar’s story.
Harry Potter star Timothy Spall plays the late lecturer, while Éanna Hardwicke has been cast as the evil Field.