A murderer whose crimes were made into an ITV drama has successfully appealed his conviction and now faces a retrial.

Ben Field was convicted in August 2019 at Oxford Crown Court of the murder of the author Peter Farquhar. Farquhar was found dead in his home in Maids Moreton in October 2015. Field had pretended to be in a relationship with Farquhar to inherit his estate. Farquhar’s cause of death was determined as being a result of acute alcohol toxicity, but after a second post-mortem Flurazepam, used to treat insomnia, was also found. Field was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 36 years.

In a ruling today, three senior judges overturned the murder conviction and ordered a retrial. Lord Justices Edis, Goose and Butcher, said they would allow the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to take the ‘unusual case’ to the supreme court before any retrial takes place. This is an uncommon step, with criminal appeals very rarely reaching the Supreme Court. To do so they must involve a point of law of ‘general public importance’.

The prosecution case at trial was that Field had manipulated Mr Farquhar into changing his will and then killed him by giving him whisky and encouraging him to drink it. This was while deceiving him as to his true intention, so making it look as if he had drunk himself to death. The defence case was denial of an intention to kill. During the trial, the defence argued that as a matter of law an individual’s deceptive conduct could amount to murder only if the deception was as to the nature of the act, and not as to their intention in committing it. The trial judge ruled against this argument.

In September 2025 the miscarriage of justice watchdog invoked a ‘safety valve’ power to send a case back to the court without having to rely on new evidence. It was the first time they have used this power. Field’s conviction has been referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) under the ‘exceptional circumstances’ provision which allows for referrals to the Court of Appeal where there is now new evidence, but based upon the principle of ‘lurking doubt’ . Field’s application argued there were exceptional circumstances which justified the court reconsidering the argument on causation which was made on appeal.

Field’s barrister, David Jeremy KC told the BBC in March that there was no proof the pensioner was deceived into drinking drugged whisky. He also said that the previous Court of Appeal decision wrongly applied the law due to ‘moral disapproval’.