Who was Peter Farquhar? The shocking true story behind his murder

A beloved author and retired university lecturer was betrothed to an evil church warden who later admitted to drugging him to inherit his house and money.

Peter Farquhar was 69 when he was murdered through alcohol poisoning by Ben Field, who was sentenced to 36 years in prison.

Field, an undergraduate English student at Buckingham University where his victim also lectured, admitted to gaslighting Mr Farquhar at Oxford Crown Court where he was later convicted.

All while having a relationship with the former lecturer, Field had a string of girlfriends and was in a sexual relationship with Mr Farquhar’s neighbour, spinster Ann Moore-Martin who was 57 years his senior. 

As the pair got closer, Mr Farquhar left Field a will of £2,000 in September 2013 – moving into his house just two months after.

Retired University of Buckingham lecturer Peter Farquhar pictured next to his partner church warden Ben Field

Pictured: Ben Field, the evil killer who pretended to be in love with retired University of Buckingham lecturer and novelist Mr Farquhar

Over a two-year period, Field drugged the university lecturer and encouraged him to drink alcohol – a deadly combination that made him believe he was losing his mind. 

The evil convicted killer started to torture his vulnerable victim as their relationship intensified.

He started off by intentionally deleting Farquhar’s mobile phone contacts – making him think he had done this himself, exactly what the crazy killer desired.

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Mr Farquhar sought medical advice but doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the pensioner.

Farquhar was admitted into hospital one month after Field moved in, after mixing 14 sleeping tablets with 400ml of gin. 

Staff initially suspected an overdose, but Field had spiked him – and a cleaner found him in his three-bed detached house.

Before their romance, Farquhar wrote a novel, Between Boy and Man, which details a man coming to terms with both his homosexuality and his Christianity, which was heavily inspired by his personal experience teaching at a prestigious private school.

Months before Field murdered Farquhar in 2015, he convinced the retired novelist to publish his coming-of-age novel, A Wide Wide Sea, after discovering manuscripts written in 1997. 

Farquhar was admitted into hospital one month after Field moved in, after mixing 14 sleeping tablets with 400ml of gin

Field was sentenced to 36 years in prison for murdering the former author

On the morning of October 26, 2015, cleaner Jane Suttill let herself into a three-bed detached house on Manor Park in Maids Moreton where she found Mr Farquhar

Field graduated from Buckingham University in 2014 with an English degree

The convicted killer expressed no remorse, shamelessly telling the jury that ‘he did it for no other reason other than it was cruel, to upset and torment Peter – purely out of meanness,’ the BBC reported.

A true crime series about the murder of the university lecturer and author Peter Farquhar has been commissioned by the BBC.