Evil churchwarden Ben Field would have become a serial killer if he had not been caught after murdering his much older lover, the detective who snared him has said.
Chief investigator Mark Glover claimed manipulative Field was “fixated with death” and had a hand-written “client list’ of 100 potential future victims.
Field, 28, was found guilty yesterday of murdering author Peter Farquhar, 69, after starting a sexual relationship with him as part of a “gaslighting” campaign aimed at being written into his will.
Mr Glover said Field deliberately targeted the “elderly, vulnerable and affluent” to pocket their fortunes.
He said: “I think he would have gone on to kill other people.
“He could not stop. He was a potential serial killer, without a doubt.”
Lonely Mr Farquhar believed the young graduate was in love with him and they even exchanged vows during an official betrothal ceremony, the court heard.
Field put psychedelic drugs in Mr Farquhar’s tea and chocolate and encouraged him to drink alcohol – a deadly combination that made him believe he was losing his mind.
His plan was to get the lecturer and author to commit suicide.
To make Mr Farquhar think he was losing his mind, Field moved things around in his home.
He convinced him he had put a crystal glass in the freezer, deleted all the contacts in his phone and smashed a prized framed picture – but Field’s diary entries showed he had done it himself.
Mr Farquhar was so worried he sought the help of specialist brain doctors, but none could find anything wrong with him.
In August 2015 Field spiked his lover with the powerful psychedelic drug 2CB on the day of his book launch.
When he was found dead by his cleaner on October 26, 2016, slumped in a chair next to a bottle of whiskey, his death was put down to acute alcohol intoxication.
Following his death, Field inherited £20,000 and moved in with 83-year-old devout Catholic Ann Moore-Martin, who lived three doors away from Mr Farquhar in the quaint village of Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire.
The retired teacher fell for his love letters and poems and they began a sexual relationship.
Field snapped her performing a sex act on him as part of a blackmail plot. He wrote messages on the mirror, convincing her God was telling her to help him.
Her solicitor and family became suspicious when he was named in her will, and contacted police. Ms Moore-Martin then cut him out of her will and told police about what had happened, and they began to investigate. She died two weeks later, in May 2017. Field admitted he had “psychologically manipulated” both the pensioners but denied any involvement in their deaths.
Magician Martyn Smith, 32, was accused of conspiring with him to murder Ms Moore-Martin but they were both cleared of that charge. Field’s younger brother Tom, 24, was also found not guilty of fraud by pretending to Ms Moore-Martin that he was seriously ill.
Detective Mr Glover, who came out of retirement to bring Field down, called the murderer a “psychopath, sociopath and possibly even a sadist” who was addicted to killing.
Talking about the killer’s list of potential victims, he told the Mirror: “He didn’t say it was a list of 100 people he was going to kill, but he didn’t deny that either. He did say they were all people that were useful to him that he could deceive in one way or another. It included his grandparents, Smith, Smith’s parents, his girlfriend, his girlfriend’s mother. He identified them all as potential targets.
“They all had no children to inherit from the will, so it made things slightly easier. Those were the kind of people he would target for fraud.”
Mr Farquhar’s brother Ian said in a statement read out after Field’s murder conviction yesterday: “His actions have been unbelievably callous, and he has told lie after lie after lie in order to achieve his goals, deceiving everyone he met. He did it all just to get some money, which we find absolutely astonishing.
“If people hear this story, we hope that they are very, very careful if somebody unexpected walks into the life of a loved one when that loved one is vulnerable and lonely.”
In a statement released by his solicitor, Martyn Smith said: “I am relieved that this ordeal is finally over. The lessons I take from this case are, first and foremost, to always be your own person and, secondly, to always choose your friends very carefully.”
Field was remanded into custody at Oxford crown court to be sentenced later following a psychiatric report.
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