Milton Keynes vicar's son to stand trial over murder of pensioner

The son of a popular Milton Keynes vicar is to stand trial next week for the murder and attempted murder of two pensioners.
Ben FieldBen Field
Ben Field

Ben Field, 28, who is a churchwarden, denies conspiring to kill former English teacher Peter Farquhar and attempting to murder his neighbour, 83-year-old Ann Moore-Martin.

He also denies conspiring to defraud the elderly pair into making him a beneficiaries in their wills.

Field’s father is Olney Baptist minister the Reverend Ian Field, and his mother is former Liberal Democrat councillor Bev Field.

Ben FieldBen Field
Ben Field

He is jointly charged with 32-year-old magician Martyn Smith who comes from Cornwall.

The pair both deny two counts of conspiracy to murder, one charge of murder apiece, one of attempted murder and two of conspiracy to defraud.

Meanwhile the Fields’ younger son Tom, a Cambridge university graduate, denies fraudulently obtaining a dialysis machine.

Both he and his brother gave their address as their parents’ manse house in Wellingborough Road, Olney.

Mr Farquhar, 69, and Ms Moore-Martin lived three doors apart in the village of Maids Moreton and died within a year-and-a-half of one another in October 2015 and May 2017.

All three defendants were arrested in January last year following raids by police retrospectively investigating the deaths of the two neighbours.

Last week the Rev Field and his wife attended a pre-trial hearing at the Old Bailey and watched Ben Field appeared via video link from remand prison.

Mrs Field sat in the public gallery and pointed at the video screen when her son appeared.

Smith has also been remanded in custody.

The trial is due to start at Oxford Crown Court next Tuesday, April 30 and will last for more than 10 weeks.

Smith faces a further charge, which he denies, of possessing an article for use in fraud – namely a copy of another woman’s will.

Tom Field is on bail but will also be part of the same trial, the Old Bailey heard.