00:00:04
[light music] [gunshot] - When a murder's committed,
it's always a race against time
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to find the truth, to
separate fact from fiction, to catch the killer, and to make sure that
justice is served.
00:00:20
But, what happens when the
truth vanishes with the victim? I'm Dr. Richard Shepherd, and
I've spent my entire career
00:00:26
as a forensic pathologist performing nearly
23,000 autopsies, including on some of
the most high profile
00:00:32
cases of recent times. I've learned that the
dead don't hide the truth and they never lie.
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Through me, you'll be hearing
directly from the victim. From a state-of-the-art
laboratory
00:00:44
with groundbreaking technology that uses digitally
scanned sample bodies, I'll be investigating a
series of intriguing murders
00:00:52
where from the victim's bodies,
I'll be revealing to you the truth behind
those horrific crimes.
00:00:59
[camera shutters] [gentle music] Maids Moreton on the
outskirts of Buckingham has a population
of less than 1,000.
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It's not the kind of place you'd expect to find
on the front pages, but this sleepy, tiny
village would become
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the center of a murder
investigation so complex that it could only be solved
from beyond the grave.
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Peter Farquhar, a 69-year-old
retired school teacher, had requested to be
buried in the church yard,
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laid to eternal rest,
never to be disturbed. But did Peter's body have any
secrets it needed to tell?
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[dynamic music] It was late October, 2015, and Peter Farquhar
was in good spirits.
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After being plagued
by a mystery illness, he phoned a friend to
say he was feeling better
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than he had in months. But, within days he was dead. [suspenseful music] - So, it's Monday morning
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and Peter's cleaner
enters the lounge. On the right hand side
of the sofa is Peter.
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He's slumped over,
lolling over to the right. [thrilling music] It's clear that he's died.
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- The cleaner dialed 9-9-9. And then, she phoned a
young man called Ben Field, who had been living with Peter.
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- Ben Field, he
was Peter's lodger. He was a student in
some of Peter's classes at the University of Buckingham.
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He had moved into Peter's home and you know, they'd
become quite close. Ben in fact, turned up
within a few minutes.
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He was there before the
emergency services arrived. So, when the paramedics came,
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Ben was there and he
was able to tell them that Peter had been having
problems with his drinking.
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He was drinking heavily. The account that Ben
gave of him drinking seemed to fit the the scene.
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There was a small
table beside Peter and there was a bottle
of whiskey on it with two thirds empty.
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There was a glass knocked
over on the floor. So, that seemed to fit the idea that he may be drunk
himself to death.
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There were no suspicions
about Peter's death at all. No one raised any
concerns about it.
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It was what it appeared
to be on the surface, and no one had any doubts that that was the cause
of Peter's death.
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- [Dr. Richard] But, the
truth of what happened to Peter Farquhar and
how he really died,
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could only be found in
one place, his body. So when someone dies, unless there is
suspicious circumstances,
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all the cause of death can't
be certified by a doctor. A post-mortem is performed,
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and in circumstances where
there isn't any worry about it being a murder, then a routine
post-mortem is performed
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by a hospital
pathologist, usually. And I can show you
on this digital table using this sample body.
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When we do a
post-mortem like this, we start by making incision
from the base of the neck
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through to the pubic bone. And then, we remove the skin and we look at the
muscles underneath,
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and make an incision right
down the front of the abdomen. And if someone is
a heavy drinker,
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there's an immediate
strong smell of alcohol as the bowel and the
intestines are exposed.
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We'll look at the
contents of the abdomen, the contents of the chest. There's the liver, the
bowel, the heart, the lungs.
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We'll look at all
of those things to see if there's any injuries,
or if there's any disease.
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We then look at the
top of the skull. And we take off the
top of the skull, and we look at the brain
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to see what's going
on inside the head. And the brain itself
is examined too. So, all of the areas of
the body are fully examined
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in a routine post-mortem. And often, standard
toxicological tests are performed as well to see
whether there's any alcohol.
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Now, in the case
of Peter Farquhar, it was said that he
was an alcoholic. It was said that he was
found collapsed on a settee
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with a half empty bottle
of whiskey next to him. And so, the coroner
ordered a test
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for alcohol to be performed. Not the full screening
test that can be done, but just looking at alcohol.
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And this showed his
alcohol was three times the limit for driving. That was sufficient
for them to conclude
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that he had died from
acute alcohol poisoning. So, at the end of the
post-mortem examination,
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they hadn't found any disease. They'd found the
presence of alcohol, so they managed to
establish a cause of death,
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but possibly not
the cause of death. After that initial post-mortem, Peter's body was released
back to his family.
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Peter was deeply religious,
and had asked to be buried at Stowe Parish Church, where he was a popular
member of the congregation.
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- Peter's funeral was a
huge affair at Stowe Church. There were so many people that they couldn't all
get into the building.
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- [Dr. Richard] Peter's
young lodger Ben Field, who had been closest to
him in his final months,
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took a leading role
in the service. - Ben read a eulogy to him,
which was kind of in keeping
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with his apparent
relationship with Peter. It was full of
puns and word play, and obviously, made
Ben seem very clever.
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People generally had
goodwill towards him. They thought that he'd
really looked after Peter
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in his declining times because
he'd been ill for a while. And he just seemed
to be a, you know,
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a young decent man. - There was a lot of discussion of what caused Peter's death.
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I asked Ben if he could tell me, and he said that it
was confidential, that the family didn't
want people to know,
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but he had died from
alcohol poisoning. And he told me a story of how
all the alcohol in the house
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had been taken out. But, he had accidentally
left a bottle of very good malt whiskey,
which he'd intended
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to give as a present
to someone else. And Peter must have found
it when sleepwalking
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and had drunk most of it. And that had caused his death. - Ben was very lucky Peter made him a
beneficiary of his estate.
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And in fact, Peter's
house ended up being sold and Ben received half of the
proceeds, which enabled him
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to buy a home in
toaster, a small flat. He did very well
after Peter's death. - [Dr. Richard] And that
might have been the end of it
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until it was discovered
that months earlier, while Peter was still alive,
one of his elderly neighbors
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had also become very close
to none other than Ben Field. - Ann Moore-Martin,
Peter's neighbor,
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she lived three
doors up from Peter. She was a retired primary
school head teacher.
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By this time, she's
in her early 80s. She's never married,
she has no children and she's comfortably off.
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She meets Ben and Ben
starts wooing her, becoming friendly with her. And Ann, in return, was
completely love struck by Ben.
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He gave her a
photograph of himself and he captioned it
beneath the photograph, "I am always with you".
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She created a kinda shrine
in her home by degrees and became separated
from her family.
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Ben, I think, encouraged
her to reduce her contact with her family. And so, she became
isolated from them.
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[tense tone] - [Dr. Richard] A year
after Peter had died, Ben was now poised to
inherit Ann's house as well.
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- Ann was very religious. She believed very
profoundly in God. And she'd started receiving
these apparent miracle messages
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on her mirrors in her home. They said things
like, "God loves you", "Take care of Ben",
"God will reward you".
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And really, the messages
seem to be saying to Ann, make Ben a beneficiary
of your will.
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Ann decided to change
her will in his favor. She made contact with
a local solicitor.
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Unfortunately for Ben,
it was the same solicitor that Peter had also gone
to when he was changing
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his will in Ben's favor. And obviously, the
solicitor was suspicious. - [Dr. Richard] The solicitor
raised concerns with Ann,
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but in December of that year, she went ahead and changed
her will to benefit Ben.
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Less than two months later,
Ann ended up in hospital and the true nature of
her relationship with Ben
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finally came to light. - Eventually Ann had a
stroke, a minor stroke, and was admitted to hospital.
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And her niece, who
was already concerned about Ben's role in her
life, contacted the police.
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Then, the police
started talking to Ann, and she began telling them
what had been going on.
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She'd also spoken to a friend
about Ben having white powder, and that made the police
suspicious as well.
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[light music] - [Dr. Richard] With
the alarm now raised, Ben Field was arrested
for fraud in March, 2017.
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And once he was under
police investigation, detectives started to realize
that Ben Fields's relationship
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with Peter Farquhar may also
not have been what it seemed. - Peter and Ann didn't really
know each other very well.
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They were neighbors,
but they weren't close. They were both single. They'd never married, they
didn't have any children,
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they didn't really have
a very close family, and they were both
very vulnerable.
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So, Ann died eventually
of natural causes. She died of a huge stroke. There was nothing suspicious
about her eventual death.
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But, that didn't stop
some of her family and some of the
people who knew her, believing that Ben
must have been involved
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somehow or other in her death. Immediately, the police started
looking at Ben's behavior
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and his conduct, and they
became suspicious of him and began to wonder
if Peter and Ann
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might have been murdered. It was no longer
now a fraud case. It was a murder inquiry.
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[dramatic tone] [eerie music] - When 69-year-old Peter
Farquhar died in 2015, it was not treated
as suspicious.
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His body did,
however, hold secrets, which had not yet
been discovered. But after his death, police
had no reason to suspect
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that his lodger, Ben Field, was lying about his
alcohol problem. Or that there was
anything untoward
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about Ben inheriting
money from Peter's will. As Peter struggled with
his declining health,
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Ben had been there at his side. So, no one had really
asked how a young man, more than 40 years his junior
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had come to be living with
Peter in the first place. - But when he first met Ben,
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Peter was in his
mid to late 60s. He was a retired English teacher at two very prominent
public schools.
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He'd been a senior
English teacher at Manchester Grammar School,
and then he'd moved down south
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to take up the head of English
at Stowe Public School. - He was focused on his
work as a school master,
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a very effective teacher. He was focused on his
faith as a Christian, - And he also entertained dreams
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of becoming a
published novelist. And he'd written some novels and none of them
had been published,
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but he was quite content. He had a comfortable life. - He also had a
great sense of humor
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and was very good company. He was very interested in
all aspects of culture, music, and art,
and architecture,
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and liked travel. - [Dr. Richard] As
an aspiring novelist, Peter was a prolific writer.
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- For very many years. Back to the 90s, Peter had
been writing daily journals. I think there was
something like, 62 books.
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Each one, there were about 200
pages, closely handwritten. - He would record
everything that happened.
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- They were quite
microscopic accounts of Peter's daily life. - [Dr. Richard] His
journals revealed
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that Peter was a man in turmoil. - Peter came from a
very religious family and he himself was
extremely religious
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and what you might
call high church. He was a member, an active
member of the church at Stowe.
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He was also gay. He was homosexual. But, he found that absolutely
incompatible with his faith.
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And he couldn't reconcile
those two parts of himself. He was really very sad. - I'm sure that Peter was
lonely in his retirement.
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He did share with me his own feelings of guilt
at having fantasies and desires that he felt
should not become reality.
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It was a sort of
secret sexuality. He believed that
it was not wrong to have homosexual feelings,
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but that it was, for him, as a Christian wrong
to live them out. - I think undoubtedly
the fact that that Peter
00:14:18
was kind of tormented
by his sexuality made him vulnerable to any
anyone with a predatory intent.
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- In retirement, Peter
took up the position as a part-time English lecturer, and this is where he
first met Ben Field.
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[light dramatic music] - So in April 2011,
Peter notices Ben Field, who is then just 20,
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a young man sitting in the
class that he's teaching. He seems to like him and
seems to be impressed
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by his intelligence. - The first time
I heard about Ben was when Peter was describing
a class that he was teaching
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at Buckingham University. And it was not very
responsive, the class, but there was one bright
student and that was Ben Field.
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- By the sound of it,
he was very clever, very vocal in class. He liked to contribute.
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Ben came from a normal,
quite respectable family, quite a comfortable upbringing.
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His mother was a
parish counselor, his father was a
Baptist minister of a
popular local church.
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- It seemed that after a while, Ben was visiting him at home. And he said Ben comes and chats
00:15:35
and is very pleasant company. Seems to like to
come and talk to me. - [Dr. Richard] Ben
appeared to share
00:15:42
Peter's love of literature, and their relationship
developed quickly. - They spent a lot of time
talking about books and writing.
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That was the great
passion for both of them. I think they had quite
competitive conversations
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trying to outwit each
other with their, you know, clever word play. [light music]
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- Peter was attracted to Ben because they exchanged
ideas about literature. Ben was full of his own
approaches to literature
00:16:11
and ready to discuss and argue. And Peter was very
happy to engage in that, and he found him
pleasant company.
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- [Dr. Richard] Before
long, this attraction became a serious commitment. - Things progressed
between Ben and Peter.
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[dramatic musical buildup] - [Dr. Richard] Two and a half
years after they first met,
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they took a working
holiday together. - That's the first time they
share a bed in a hotel room,
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which Peter's journals reveal, he found him find
this very exciting, being close to Ben's body.
00:16:44
Then on a particular day,
they take a walk up a hill, and at the top, Ben
declares his love for Peter.
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He produces two knives
that he's bought, especially for the occasion. They are, you know, the
equivalent of wedding rings.
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They're sort of symbols of
brotherhood and commitment. This is the culmination
of everything
00:17:02
that Peter might have secretly
hoped for his whole life. Ben now moves into Peter's home.
00:17:09
They've agreed that
to the outside world, that Ben will be the lodger. But, it's a very poignant detail
00:17:15
that for the first
time in his life, Peter goes out and
buys a double bed. Clearly, you know, planning
to share that bed with Ben.
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No one really knows
whether or not Ben and Peter ever had sex. I think that Peter used
a phrase in his journal,
00:17:32
words to the effect of, total physical and emotional
satisfaction before God. And that might be
an interpretation
00:17:40
of the fact they
were having sex, but it's just
impossible to know. - Peter sent me an
email telling me
00:17:48
that Ben was moving in and that they were
forming a partnership. And that this was
not to be official.
00:17:59
No one was to know about it. Neither of them felt it
necessary to tell anybody else.
00:18:07
Peter was thanking God for
this God-given relationship. He was sure that it was blessed.
00:18:15
[solemn music] - [Dr. Richard]
Five months later, they made a serious commitment.
00:18:21
- So, things move quite
quickly for Ben and Peter now. And in March 2014, they go
through a ceremony of betrothal.
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There's a gay vicar
in London, Abbey Road, in Kilburn, St. Mary's Church, and he conducts a small
ceremony for them.
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It's just the three of them. - As far as I know,
I'm the only person that Peter spoke to
about this blessing
00:18:47
that there
relationship received. [light music] - [Dr. Richard] Although
their personal relationship
00:18:53
stayed private, their
relationship with God was shared very publicly. Ben quickly established
himself as a trusted member
00:19:01
of Peter's congregation. - Ben starts accompanying Peter
to his church, Stowe Church,
00:19:07
and Ben is charming and willing. He becomes a deputy
church warden, essentially invading himself
into the life of the church.
00:19:15
The congregation, like
everyone else who met Ben, found him very charming,
plausible, very clever.
00:19:22
Quite incredibly, he decided that he would seek
to be ordained. Eventually, he was quite close
00:19:28
to actually being
ordained as a vicar. - Ben Field did arguably
groom those around Peter
00:19:34
and in the local community. It seemed that he was trying
to create the conditions
00:19:39
to smooth the way
into Peter's life and to gain acceptance so people wouldn't ask too many questions.
00:19:46
And he was seemed to
be presenting a persona of somebody who was very
religious and educated,
00:19:56
and caring, very much at
variance with the truth. - [Dr. Richard] Ben
was soon a core member
00:20:01
of Peter's social circle. - Peter had quite an
active social life. He liked having people
around for supper.
00:20:07
He went around to
other people's houses. The incredible thing about Ben is that people really liked him,
00:20:12
and people perceived that
he was really good for Peter and was looking after him.
00:20:16
They understood that
Peter was quite lonely and Ben was filling a void. - [Dr. Richard] But, there were
people who had their doubts.
00:20:25
- I do remember the
occasion when we met here and I went into the kitchen
and Ben followed me in
00:20:33
and chatted and admired
various objects in the house. And then he said, this is
the sort of thing I like.
00:20:41
And he took out a flick knife. And suddenly, the blade
was flashed at me. I was a bit taken aback.
00:20:50
A bit surprised at this, but I don't think I've
showed any reaction. But, it was in retrospect,
a rather sinister moment.
00:21:01
- [Dr. Richard] It was
a moment that revealed the inner workings of
Ben Fields's psyche.
00:21:05
- Narcissism was
a term that's used to describe pattern of
behavior that centers upon
00:21:10
an individual's belief
in their own superiority. Being superior to other
people in their own minds,
00:21:16
they're entitled to manipulate
and exploit other people. They do typically demand
attention as well.
00:21:25
They seek opportunities
to demonstrate. I suppose it's superiority. So, it's not just a
sort of casual charm,
00:21:33
which sometimes they present towards the world all the time. Sometimes they can be vicious
and vindictive as well.
00:21:42
- [Dr. Richard] Despite
the telltale signs, throughout their relationship
and even after Peter's death,
00:21:47
no one raised any
concerns about Ben Field. It was only a year and a half
later when Ann Moore Martin
00:21:54
had also changed her will
to benefit Ben Field, that Ben was arrested for fraud.
00:22:01
The police started
asking serious questions. [tense tone] - They had started looking
at all the huge amount
00:22:09
of material that
they've recovered from their searches
of Ben's homes, and they decided there was
enough there to suggest
00:22:15
that if they examined
Peter's body in more detail, they may find fresh evidence.
00:22:22
So, the police eventually
decided that they needed to exhume Peter's body
from the cemetery at Stowe.
00:22:28
[light eerie music] It's not an everyday
occurrence for the police to exhume the bodies
for people who had died.
00:22:41
It's very rare. I don't think the police
wanted to alert the community, and also, the potential suspect
to the fact that they were
00:22:53
essentially carrying out
a covert murder inquiry. So, they carried
out the exhumation
privately and quietly.
00:23:01
- [Dr. Richard] Peter
Farquhar had been dead and buried in Stowe
Parish churchyard for
a year and a half,
00:23:06
but his body still had secrets that had not yet
been discovered. It's amazing how
much information you
can get from a body
00:23:15
that's been buried
for a long time. The changes of decomposition
depends so much
00:23:19
on the type of soil that
the body was buried in. And in Peter's case, in
fact, the preservation
00:23:25
of his body was very good. The skin in some small
areas had been decomposed, and bits of the
skeleton were exposed.
00:23:34
And the external surfaces, because of those changes, would've lost some
superficial evidence
00:23:39
that might have been present. Now, Peter's organs
had changed a bit, returning as is the
normal process through
00:23:47
that cellular contents back
the earth as we would expect. The internal organs that
you were able to be seen
00:23:56
present within the
body were pretty good and could be further examined. But the key thing was,
in order to establish
00:24:03
whether Peter had actually died as a result of acute
alcoholic intoxication, there needed to be a much
more detailed examination
00:24:12
of the whole of the body,
looking in greater detail for any injuries,
any other findings.
00:24:17
And of course, for a much more
toxicological examination. The secret of how
Peter had really died,
00:24:26
had been buried with him. Now, his own body would
tell the true story of what the killer
really did to his victim.
00:24:34
- Critically, the most
important piece of evidence that sealed the case were
the results of the exhumation
00:24:41
that had been carried
out of Peter's body. And I don't think I've ever
come across anything like it.
00:24:46
[tense tone] [suspenseful music] - [Dr. Richard] When Peter
Farquhar was found dead in 2015,
00:24:56
next to a half empty
bottle of whiskey, no one had doubted that he
died from excessive drinking.
00:25:03
But now, his body
had been exhumed, and finally would be
able to tell the truth about what had happened.
00:25:13
Peter's body was examined
in far more detail during the second post-mortem. And his lodger, Ben Field,
now also found himself
00:25:20
under much closer scrutiny. - I think he put on a
good show, a good act. He was what my mother
would've called
00:25:27
a plausible young man. He knew how to talk to
people and please them. [ominous music]
00:25:37
- [Dr. Richard] Back in 2013,
after moving in with Peter, Ben Field got a job
at a local care home.
00:25:43
- He underwent training for how
to look after the residents. And it seemed like
a really kind,
00:25:52
religious, you know, type
of thing to be doing, to be looking after others. - I knew that he was putting
himself forward for ordination
00:26:02
and I said, well, this is
all good pastoral experience, helping people. And his reply surprised me.
00:26:12
"Yes, and it will help me look after Peter
in his dementia", which I found a
shocking statement.
00:26:21
I was really very surprised. - [Dr. Richard] This was
the first anyone had heard
00:26:26
that Peter might be
suffering from dementia. - So I think towards the end
of 2014, the beginning of 2015,
00:26:34
that some of Peter's
friends began to notice some decline in his faculties. He seemed a little slow,
sometimes a little sleepy.
00:26:43
He seemed quite forgetful. Previously, he was
very sharp witted. He would sometimes say things
like he was hearing voices.
00:26:50
Peter suffered quite
severe hallucinations and you know, almost like sort
of, out of body experiences,
00:26:56
which he wrote about
in his journal. Seeing, you know, shards
of light and, you know,
00:27:02
small creatures and really
very disturbing things. People were concerned. - It was at about the same
time that Peter was telling me
00:27:11
regularly, that Ben told him
that he was sleepwalking. And he was doing things that he couldn't
remember having done.
00:27:23
Things like, all the
family photographs that were in the living room had moved up into
his study upstairs.
00:27:32
He couldn't find his car keys. [soft dramatic music] He said, "Ben always
finds these things.
00:27:41
I've hidden them
around the house. I don't know what I'm doing. I fear I'm losing my mind."
00:27:47
He was very distressed about
this as anyone would be. One of the nastiest occasions
was when Ben showed him,
00:27:57
he told me a box of files which had become
sodden with urine. And Ben said, "You
must have peed in it
00:28:08
when you were walking,
sleepwalking." So, that was pretty shocking. - [Dr. Richard] And sometimes,
while Peter was going through
00:28:17
these frightening episodes,
Ben was filming him. - They, they, they're,
they're um, exchanging
00:28:27
a very substantial
amounts of money for, you know, a glass of whatever. - [Ben Field] Where is it
that you think they are?
00:28:35
I'm not sure. I'm not sure myself. So, where is it that they're
buying these glasses of water?
00:28:43
- They probably aren't. - Ben Fields's behavior
towards Peter Farquhar does seem to have been
extremely cold-blooded,
00:28:52
very calculated. I think he did undoubtedly
get gratification from the hold that
he had over Peter.
00:29:00
The fact that he was able to manipulate Peter
into doing things. It's as if this was
just as important to him
00:29:08
as the financial
gain, for example. - He asked people
to pray for him. I suppose he feared that
he might have dementia
00:29:15
or that, you know, he might
be suffering some other kind of long-term illness
that was creeping up on him.
00:29:23
So in the summer of 2015,
Peter had this book launch for a book called
"A Wide Wide Sea",
00:29:29
that was one of his novels. And he started feeling very ill and behaving very strangely.
00:29:36
And he would later
write in his journal what a terrible day it had been and now he'd been having
all these very odd
00:29:44
sort of, unreal experiences
during the whole event. - I was told that he
felt very unwell indeed
00:29:54
and that he could hardly
sign copies of his book. I was not invited to it, which I think might have been
a calculation on Ben's part.
00:30:04
[sinister music] - [Dr. Richard] Peter suffered
a number of accidents, injuries, and
public humiliations.
00:30:11
"All of it," said Ben,
"evidence of dementia." - [Operator] Can I get
the reason for the call?
00:30:16
- [Ben Field] Mr.
Farquhar's fallen. His head struck a table
on his way to the floor.
00:30:21
- [Operator] Okay,
what I can do is offer an assessment for
the head injury. And how did he manage to fall?
00:30:26
Was there a faint or a
blackout before the fall, or what exactly happened? - [Ben Field] He's
prone to falls.
00:30:31
So, he falls frequently because of something
that's as yet undiagnosed, but it's probably dementia.
00:30:41
- But, Peter didn't
actually have dementia. He'd been to see doctors. He'd even had an MRI scan,
00:30:46
and there was no
neurological explanation for the symptoms that
he was displaying.
00:30:51
And they'd also come
on far too suddenly. Looking at the body
on the digital table,
00:30:57
we can see what a
normal brain looks like. The surface of the brain is folded like
mountains and valleys.
00:31:04
But in dementia, what happens
when the brain tissue is lost? Those valleys get
bigger and broader.
00:31:10
But when we cut across
the brain, the ventricles, the holes in the middle of
the brain that are normally
00:31:16
contain clear
cerebral spinal fluid, those two get bigger
and full of fluid. And Peter, when his
brain was examined,
00:31:24
showed none of these
pathological signs of dementia. So, if Ben had been
making up symptoms
00:31:31
to try and lay the
groundwork to suggest that Peter was
developing dementia, if he was lying about that,
00:31:37
what else could
he be lying about? [dark pensive music] - The other issue that
then started putting about
00:31:45
was that Peter was
drinking too much. People knew that
Peter liked to drink. But, no one really thought that
he was drinking too excess.
00:31:55
But now, Ben was
telling them that, you know, his excessive
drinking was causing him
00:32:00
problems with his health. - Peter was a steady drinker. He'd have a bit of gin
and tonic in the summer
00:32:10
or whiskey in the winter. We'd share a bottle
of wine over dinner. It wasn't excessive.
00:32:17
I never saw him drunk. Peter's drinking habits
were not indicative of someone with an
alcohol problem.
00:32:27
- He didn't seem
like somebody who, you know, drank everything
he could lay his hands on.
00:32:31
But, 'cause he was quite
a keen social drinker, and so, it wasn't a very big
step for people to believe
00:32:38
that he actually might be having
problems with his drinking. [eerie music] - [Dr. Richard] And it was
a problem that Ben suggested
00:32:47
was spiraling out of control. - So, one night Ben phoned
the emergency services and told them that Peter
had just taken an overdose.
00:32:57
Ben said that he'd come
home and found Peter with a bottle of
gin and some pills.
00:33:04
But then, when he went to
hospital, there was no evidence from tests that he
drunk very much at all
00:33:10
and no suggestion
of an overdose. - [Dr. Richard] Ben
had convinced everyone that Peter was an alcoholic,
00:33:17
but heavy drinking can
leave its mark on the body. Peter's exhumed remains were
in remarkably good condition,
00:33:23
and his organs told
their own story. Peter was found in his front
room, slumped over on the sofa
00:33:30
and next to him was
a half full bottle of really quite expensive
and very strong whiskey.
00:33:35
The first post-mortem
examination had done a very narrow
toxicological examination,
00:33:40
not really considering the
wider forensic implications that had showed that he
got a significant amount
00:33:45
of alcohol in his bloodstream. The second post-mortem
examination looked in somewhat more
detail at his liver.
00:33:53
But, it still didn't
show any evidence of alcohol related disease. It's smooth, it's
even, it's brown,
00:34:01
and that's what a
normal liver looks like. There was no evidence
of the scarring
00:34:04
and knobbly pallor
that you associate with cirrhosis and liver damage. So, was someone trying to
construct a story here?
00:34:12
Telling tales about his
life and his use of alcohol that might suggest
something else was going on.
00:34:18
And this was the crucial
thing When there was a wider forensic examination of Peter.
00:34:24
Could it be established that
he necessarily would've died from the amount of alcohol
that was present in his blood?
00:34:31
Or was there something
more sinister going on? [suspenseful music] Back in 2015 in Maids Moreton,
00:34:42
Peter was so concerned
about his failing health that he moved into a care home where there was a
dramatic change.
00:34:49
- He's away from Ben, obviously, and miraculously, he starts
to feel so much better.
00:34:54
He feels much better in himself. He starts phoning friends, telling them how
well he's feeling.
00:35:00
- [Dr. Richard] One of
the friends he called was Robert Wilson. - He told me then that he'd
been in a care home for a week
00:35:33
during which he said he
did not sleepWalk at all. That stayed with me. I realized that I
never really put
00:35:43
two and two together
to see that he'd never actually sleepwalked at all. - [Dr. Richard]
Peter seemed relieved
00:35:51
that his mysterious
symptoms had disappeared, but his moment of happiness
was all too brief.
00:35:57
- He goes home, he
goes to his church and he tells the congregation
that he's feeling much better.
00:36:04
Everyone's really pleased. And it's the next day that
he's found dead by his cleaner.
00:36:11
[tense tone] [light music] - When Peter Farquhar
died in 2015, foul play wasn't suspected
00:36:24
and it wasn't
investigated any further. But then, a shocked discovery led to the exhumation
of his body
00:36:30
and the chance for it
to reveal the truth. It was discovered that
Peter's lodger, Ben Field,
00:36:36
had also convinced
82-year-old Ann Moore Martin to change her will in his favor,
00:36:42
setting off a chain of events that would prove
to be his downfall. [light music ends]
00:36:49
- As it would turn
out, of course, Ben was shot himself in the foot when he was trying to gaslight
Ann and get into her will
00:36:55
because he pushed her to make
contact with the solicitor, and she contacted the very
solicitor who already knew
00:37:01
what he was done with Peter
and getting into his will. - [Dr. Richard] Ben Field
was arrested for fraud
00:37:09
and as part of
the investigation, detectives searched Ben's home. That's when they
found his diaries.
00:37:16
- All these notebooks of
Ben's, in which he'd written effectively, what he planned
to do, what he'd done.
00:37:22
One of the great
mysteries of the case is why Ben knew the
police were after him,
00:37:26
but he didn't destroy
all those notebooks, which would've
made it much harder for the police to build
a case against him.
00:37:31
He left everything there. [light dramatic music] - [Dr. Richard] But,
police still didn't have
00:37:37
enough evidence to charge
Ben Field with murder. They needed to prove he
had intended to kill Peter.
00:37:44
[light dramatic music ends] - It took the police so long
to get to grips with this case.
00:37:50
It was so difficult
for the police to read all this
tiny spidery writing. But eventually, they started
realizing what he'd done.
00:37:57
And not only that, but realizing that he'd written
down what he'd done. So in January, 2018,
he was arrested
00:38:06
and this time he was
arrested for murder. There was an overwhelming
amount of evidence
00:38:13
from Ben's own hand that
he had always intended that Peter would die. He'd written a little, he'd
drawn this little illustration
00:38:21
of a grave and beside
it he'd written "The hole is the goal". And he was referring to Peter.
00:38:28
He'd written about
attacking him. He'd written down how he wanted
to hit him with a hammer.
00:38:36
2015 he'd written "End Peter". [tense tone] And of course,
that's what happened.
00:38:42
[somber piano music] - [Dr. Richard] The notebooks
revealed the mind of a killer.
00:38:48
- I think the extensive
and detailed note keeping, it might be seen as him
adopting a really professional
00:38:54
approach to what he was doing. It's as if he prided himself
on his meticulousness
00:39:00
and attention to detail. - I think there were over
50 instances in which Ben had written that he
had given Peter sedatives,
00:39:11
benzodiazepines
in various forms. The police also
discovered, of course, that Ben had been stealing
drugs from the care home
00:39:18
where he worked, which
enabled him to do that. And they also saw that
when Peter was suffering
00:39:24
these out of body experiences, in fact, he'd been given
these psychedelic drugs.
00:39:27
A drug called BK-2C-B. That was why he'd been having
these terrible reactions. - [Dr. Richard] But, although
he had written about drugging
00:39:36
and killing Peter,
it wasn't proof that he'd actually
carried it out. Only the truths
revealed by Peter's body
00:39:43
during the second post-mortem
could provide the proof. It had been established
that there was no evidence
00:39:49
of alcoholism or dementia
as Ben had claimed. But, was the body
holding more secrets?
00:39:56
In Peter's exhumation, they
recovered samples of his hair for toxicological examination.
00:40:03
Now, the hair doesn't decompose
very quickly after death. And that's because it's
composed of keratin,
00:40:09
the same material
that makes your nails. And I can show you pictures of
it on the digital table here.
00:40:15
We know hair grows in life at about one centimeter
per month in an adult. In Peter's case, there were
about six centimeters of hair,
00:40:24
meaning, the toxicologist
could look at the drugs he had taken or was administered
00:40:29
over the six months of his life. And when they did so, they
could see that there were
00:40:34
benzodiazepine drugs
present throughout the samples that were analyzed. It also found evidence
that he had taken
00:40:43
or been given an
ecstasy type drug, the type of drug that gives
people bizarre hallucinations.
00:40:50
And that would explain, perhaps, his really odd behavior
at his book launch. [somber music]
00:40:58
- [Dr. Richard] The hair
proved that what Ben Field had written in the pages of his
journals about harming Peter
00:41:03
was not just fantasies. It was evidence that he
had actually done it. - This is such an unusual
case because it's all there.
00:41:11
It's all written down
what's happening. So, you have Ben describing
that in his notebooks
00:41:16
that he's drugged Peter. You have Peter in the
next stage journal entries describing how he felt.
00:41:21
He felt so ill. And then, you have
the forensic science, you have the evidence
of the hair samples
00:41:27
from the exhumation
revealing that the whole time that Peter was being drugged. - Gaslighting is a behavior
that would be consistent
00:41:36
with some of what
narcissists do, because it really is
concerned with undermining
00:41:43
another person. Destroying their confidence. And maybe, getting the person
to question their own beliefs.
00:41:50
You know, they don't
know what's real anymore. To make him feel depressed. The fact that he seemed to
be losing his faculties.
00:41:56
- So, although in the end,
the police could never absolutely say with certainty
what happened at the moment
00:42:02
of Peter's death, how he
had died at Ben's hand, the evidence that
Ben had killed Peter
00:42:09
and that he'd intended to
kill him was overwhelming. - [Dr. Richard] Ben
Field was charged
00:42:14
with the murder
of Peter Farquhar and the attempted murder
of Ann Moore Martin. [intense music]
00:42:23
- Ben's trial at
Oxford Crown Court in the summer of 2019
was absolutely epic. I mean, it lasted over
three and a half months.
00:42:29
It was practically
the whole summer. Ben, you know, disclosed so
many extraordinary things
00:42:35
that he'd done. But, he was giving evidence
for well over two weeks and he was in the witness
box facing the jury
00:42:44
like he was delivering
a lecture sometimes, trying to play down
what he'd really done.
00:42:51
But at the same time,
not being able to avoid showing people how clever
he was, how devious.
00:43:00
- Seeking to represent yourself
in court is rather unusual. And I think that is
entirely consistent
00:43:06
with his narcissistic
tendencies. Maybe he felt that he would be
better than any mere lawyer,
00:43:14
that he'd be able to dazzle
the jury with his brilliance. And meanwhile, receive a lot
of attention in the courtroom.
00:43:21
So, it would tick a lot of
boxes for him, I'm sure. - Ben was deceiving everyone.
00:43:26
He was living a
completely unreal life. It was extraordinary to
hear it unfold in court.
00:43:33
His defense was that when
he wrote those things down, he was just, you know,
playing with ideas.
00:43:37
He never really meant any of it. And what else could he say? He'd written it all down.
00:43:43
He'd left it there for
the police to find. - [Dr. Richard] Ben's notebooks
also revealed a hit list
00:43:48
of over a hundred
people to manipulate, including his own parents. There was little doubt
that he would kill again.
00:43:56
- I was called to be a witness
at the trial of Ben Field. It was a very strange
and rather frightening
00:44:03
experience giving evidence. During the court case, the
defense wanted me to know
00:44:11
that I was on Ben's hit list. He had a list of people who he might consider
murdering in due course.
00:44:20
- I think the fact that
the police found a list of, I think it was over a
hundred potential targets,
00:44:26
does give an indication
of just how planned and cold blooded he really was. - He was fascinated
by how clever he was
00:44:33
and it felt like that sometimes
when he was in the dock talking to the jury
about all his misdeeds,
00:44:39
that he was kind of proud
of them in some way. And you know, you could
see him almost rising,
00:44:44
had this kind of grandiosity
about him and the superiority. - A psychopath is
usually described
00:44:51
as having a kind of
superficial charm, a sense of grandiosity, a
sense of their own importance.
00:44:57
It's often quite glib, rather dismissive of other
people's points of view. They seem very confident
regarding their
own point of view.
00:45:07
There's a great
willingness to use deceit to achieve their own ends. [dramatic music]
00:45:13
- [Dr. Richard] After a
trial lasting 15 weeks, Ben Field was found guilty
of Peter Farquhar's murder,
00:45:19
but there wasn't enough
evidence to convict him of having played a part in
the death of Ann Moore Martin.
00:45:24
[melancholic music] - Ben was given a life sentence. He was convicted of murder
and sentenced to life
00:45:32
and he received
a 36-year tariff, which means that he
will serve 36 years before he can be
considered for release.
00:45:41
I mean, he may
never be released. But, he won't be going
anywhere For 36 years. [melancholic music continues]
00:45:51
- Peter Farquhar didn't
survive the calculated cruelty of Ben Field. A body never lies, and
Peter's body needed
00:45:58
to be able to give the truth
of what had happened to him. But, thanks to his wish to
be buried in holy ground
00:46:04
in the church yard that
was so central to his life, the evidence buried
with him helped ensure
00:46:09
that Ben Field could never
claim another victim. [suspenseful music] [suspenseful music fades]