"I think I'll get away with most of it" says Milton Keynes vicar's son accused of plotting to kill 83-year-old lover

Retired teacher Ann Moore-Martin entered into a full-blown sexual relationship with Olney vicar’s son Ben Field, despite the 57 year age gap.

She was “gushing” about Field, and acted if she was “hypnotised” by him, Oxford Crown court was told.

Yet churchwarden Field had already allegedly murdered Miss Moore-Martin’s neighbour Peter Farquhar by poisoning his food and slipping neat alcohol into his drinks.

Scholarly Mr Farquhar, 69, had been equally besotted with Field and entered into a gay ‘marriage’ with him.

When he died, Field, now 28, inherited the house and £20,000 cash, the court heard

Within months he moved on to Miss Moore-Martin, who lived a few doors down the Maids Moreton street, as part of a “gaslighting” plot to kill her too.

But police became suspicious and exhumed Mr Farquhar’s body almost two years later.

As a result Field, whose father Ian is the Olney Baptist minister, was arrested in 2017 on suspicion of murder.

When first arrested he was “full of bravado,” said Oliver Saxby QC.

“He said to police: ‘I know what this is about and I’m not worried’,” he said.

When arrested again in January 2018, Field tried to escape out of his girlfriend’s bedroom window and was found by police hiding in an outbuilding.

Soon after this, the police left Field and his co-defendant Martyn Smith alone in a vehicle with a recording device.

During their conversation, Field said to Smith: “I think I’ll get away with most of it.”

Mr Saxby said: “This is not the language of an innocent person, it’s the talk of an arrogant, guilty person.”

Field and Martyn Smith, 32, from Cornwall, deny murder and conspiracy to murder.

Ben Field, who lives in Wellingborough Road in Olney, has admitted four charges of fraud and two of burglary.

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

The prosecution case took almost four days to outline to the jury because it was so complex. The entire trial is expected to last for several weeks.