New TV series Sixth Commandment begins this week, telling the story of a churchwarden who murdered his older lover after gaslighting the 69-year-old into thinking he was losing his mind – then tricked a retired Bicester headteacher.
Timothy Spall plays victim Peter Farquhar, who was given drugs by killer Benjamin Field and fed spiked whisky in the hope that his murder would look like suicide or an accident.
University student Field, who in the BBC drama series is played by Irish actor Éanna Hardwicke, was convicted at Oxford Crown Court in 2019 of Mr Farquhar’s murder.
READ MORE: Chief suspect for Oxford 'murder' dies on M25
He was ordered to serve at least 36 years behind bars for what became known as the Maids Moreton murder.
Last Tango in Halifax star Anne Reid plays another of Farquar’s victims, retired Bicester headteacher Ann Moore-Martin, with whom he was in a sexual relationship and who he manipulated – including by writing messages on her mirrors purporting to be from God.
Prior to its launch, the BBC said the series would show the different ways Mr Farquhar and Miss Moore-Martin were manipulated by Field.
It would capture ‘the extreme gaslighting, the gripping police investigation and the high-profile trial’, they said.
“It also celebrates both Peter and Ann’s lives as cherished mentors, much loved relatives and adored friends,” publicists added.
The programme has been made with the ‘full cooperation’ of the victims’ families.
Who was killer Ben Field and how did he meet Peter Farquhar?
Field met Mr Farquhar, a former head of English at Stowe School, in 2011 at a lecture at the University of Buckingham.
He moved into the older man’s home as a lodger and, later, the pair became lovers. They went through a ‘betrothal’ ceremony.
The former teacher died at his home in October 2015 after what prosecutors claimed was a campaign of drugging by Field. They said Field hoped to inherit the man’s house.
During the trial, the prosecution case was that Field had spiked Mr Farquhar’s whisky and given him drugs, hoping that his murder would look like suicide or an accident.
The killer was alleged to have smothered the older man.
Police reopened the investigation into the English teacher’s death after Field began targeting Mr Farquhar's neighbour, Ann Moore-Martin, in the village of Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire.
The sexually promiscuous Field also manipulated Miss Moore-Martin, a deeply religious retired head teacher at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Bicester, by writing messages on her mirrors purporting to be from God.
He filmed her performing a sex act on him, using it as leverage to bend her to his will.
She gave him £4,000 to buy a car and £27,000 for a dialysis machine.
Miss Moore-Martin died in May 2017 from natural causes. Field was cleared of plotting to kill her, but admitted defrauding her.
‘Kill list’
Field was alleged by prosecutors to have had a ‘profound fascination in controlling and manipulating and humiliating and killing’.
Psychiatrists told the court that Field was either suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder or a psychopathic personality disorder.
He had drawn up a list of 100 potential targets, which included members of his own family and the congregation at the church in Stowe, Bucks, where he was a churchwarden.
According to reports, during his trial he admitted that he did not believe in God – despite considering training for the priesthood. He was reported saying: “Going to church was about manipulating Peter. It’s where I might meet people who were potential targets.”
Field denied murdering the author and University of Buckingham lecturer and maintained Mr Farquhar could have died from taking his usual dose of flurazepam and drinking whisky.
He told the jury he had created fake relationships with Mr Farquhar and Ms Moore-Martin in order to benefit financially from their deaths but had not wished them dead.
Sentencing the killer to life with a minimum term behind bars of 36 years, Mr Justice Sweeney said he ‘lived by deception and deceit and had been a well-practised and able liar’.
READ MORE: Church warden 'would have killed again'
"You further admitted how you could manipulate and manoeuvre people, however sceptical they may have been, to achieve your ends without ever asking them to do so directly," he said.
The judge said that Field murdered Mr Farquhar by covertly giving him drugs and getting him to drink strong whisky and then, ‘if it was necessary, finished him off by suffocating him in a way that left no trace’.
After Field was jailed for life, Thames Valley Police's senior investigating officer Mark Glover said Field fitted the profile of a psychopath.
“Cruel, calculating, manipulative, deceitful. I don’t think evil is too strong a word for him,” he said.
Field later attempted to appeal his conviction for killing Mr Farquhar.
Sixth Commandment is on the BBC iPlayer now.
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