Peter Farquhar | Truth About My Murder | FilmRise True Crime | Forensic Files

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

Forensic pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd investigates the murder of novelist and lecturer Peter Farquhar, gaslighted then killed by Ben Field to inherit his money.

In The Truth About My Murder, Dr. Richard Shepherd showcases a state-of-the-art digital autopsy table featuring digitally scanned sample bodies to investigate a series of intriguing murders where the victims' bodies help reveal the truth behind horrific crimes.

For More FilmRise Check Out Our Other Channels: FilmRise Television: https://www.youtube.com/⁨@FilmRiseTelevision⁩ FilmRise Movies: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmRiseMovies Highway to Heaven - Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@HighwaytoHeavenFullEpisodes

Brief Summary

The episode reveals how forensic evidence exposed Ben Field's murder of Peter Farquhar, initially dismissed as alcohol poisoning.

Key points

The Complexity of Peter's Death. Peter Farquhar's death appeared to be from alcohol poisoning, but was it really?
Ben Field's Charisma. Ben Field charmed everyone around Peter, but was he hiding darker intentions?
The Exhumation Decision. Police decide to exhume Peter's body for fresh evidence in a murder inquiry.
The Exhumation of Peter Farquhar. Peter's body was exhumed to uncover the truth behind his mysterious death.
Ben Field's Deception. Ben Field manipulated Peter and others, leading to a shocking discovery.
The Trial of Ben Field. Ben Field was found guilty of murder after a lengthy trial.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Ben was very lucky Peter made him a beneficiary of his estate.

Dr. Richard Shepherd on Ben Field's unexpected fortune after Peter's death.

7:16WatchFeb 6, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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