Pictured: Peter Farquhar with a facial injury sustained after a fall
A church warden accused of killing his former teacher convinced his victim he had a rare form of cancer and moved things around in his home to 'gaslight' him into thinking he'd gone mad, a court heard.
Son of a Baptist minister Benjamin Field, 28, is on trial with magician Martyn Smith, 32, accused of murdering Peter Farquhar, 69, following a sustained campaign of 'gaslighting' in 2015.
Oxford Crown Court heard that Field told a friend he had a 'struck a deal' to live with Mr Farquhar - a novelist and former English teacher - at his home in the village of Maids Moreton in Buckinghamshire.
Peter's brother Ian Farquhar, 68, said Field had tried to diagnose Peter with a rare cancer, and in the last six months before he died Peter would have hallucinations, pointing out 'lights in the sky' on a cloudy day.
Ian said that his late brother had fallen for a 'total seduction', today learning that Field had admitted to moving things around in the home they shared in a bid to make Peter think he'd gone mad.
David Jeremy QC, defending for Benjamin Field, asked Ian Farquhar: 'Did you know he admits disorienting Peter Farquhar by hiding and moving his possessions?'
Pictured: Peter Farqhuar, left, and Benjamin Field, right. Peter's brother Ian said that his late brother had fallen for a 'total seduction'
Ian Farquhar said: 'I didn't know that until you just said it.'
Field and Smith are also accused of planning to kill Peter's elderly neighbour Ann Moore-Martin, 83. Peter Farquhar died in October 2015, while Miss Moore-Martin, a retired teacher, died in May 2017.
The jury at Oxford Crown Court also heard that Ian Farquhar had found out for the first time this morning morning that Field admitted secretly administering hallucinogenic drugs to his brother.
Ian Farquhar said: 'At the time, it seemed to be a developing relationship. They appeared to have things in common. Most certainly, I maybe see it now as a total seduction.'
Benjamin Field (left), 28, and Martyn Smith (right), 32, are on trial at Oxford Crown Court and deny murder, conspiracy to murder
Speaking of the day Field told him Peter had been found dead on October 26, 2015, Ian said Field had appeared 'strangely unaffected' (pictured: Peter Farquhar and Benjamin Field)
Speaking of the day Field told him Peter had been found dead on October 26, 2015, Ian said Field had appeared 'strangely unaffected', acted inappropriately and did not said the kind of things one might expect someone who'd lost a close friend to say.
Ian said: 'At the time, it seemed to be a developing relationship. They appeared to have things in common. Most certainly, I maybe see it now as a total seduction.'
Field managed to persuade Peter Farquhar to make changes to Peter's will, prosecutor Oliver Saxby QC had told the jury.
The house was going to be left to Ian Farquhar and his sons, Andrew and Jamie, but it ended up being left to Field and Martyn Smith, the court heard.
The will was later amended so that Field and the Farquhars would share the property.
Ian Farquhar said: 'I always thought Peter would be the one to live longer, he had my mum's build, and she lived to be in her nineties. He was someone who was far more particular about what he ate. He was somebody who had a good Scottish tradition of not wasting things.
Peter Farquhar (left), 69, and Ann Moore-Martin, 83, died within a year and a half of each other
'He was somebody who knew, irritatingly, where everything was and what he'd done and what he'd said to people. Then he had this ridiculous forgetfulness. I always remember about him continuously losing his glasses and losing his telephone and finding them in strange places.
'He saw things - he had hallucinations. Me and my wife, we were sitting in his front room talking to him, and he said, ''can you see all those lights in the sky over there?''
'We looked out and it was a cloudy day. That would have been within the last six months before he died.'
Ian said he first became aware of Ben Field a few years before Peter's death. Peter met Field while he was a guest lecturer at the University of Buckingham, and Field was a student there.
Ian Farquhar said: 'As a family, we talked about this a little bit. We were aware of his, shall we say, his tendencies. But at the time it seemed a bit nosy to put our nose into what was going on there.
