A church warden and a magician spiked a university lecturer’s food and drink with neat alcohol and hallucinogenic drugs as part of a sustained campaign of “gaslighting”, a court has heard.
Prosecutors allege Peter Farquhar, 69, was given glasses of “supercharged” whisky while his food was laced with drugs such as 2C-B during a plot to murder him.
Benjamin Field, 28, the son of a Baptist minister, and Martyn Smith, 32, are accused of murdering the retired English teacher and planning to kill his elderly neighbour Ann Moore-Martin, 83.
Farquhar died in October 2015, while Moore-Martin, a retired teacher, died in May 2017.
Cambridge University graduate Tom Field, 24, Benjamin Field’s younger brother, is also on trial accused of fraud.
Benjamin Field and Smith “psychologically manipulated” the deeply religious pair, who lived three doors from each other in the picturesque village of Maids Moreton in Buckinghamshire, making them believe they were losing their minds, Oxford Crown Court heard.
As part of the deception, prosecutors allege, Benjamin Field had undergone a “betrothal” ceremony with gay Farquhar while also having a string of girlfriends.
Later, as part of the alleged plot to target Moore-Martin, he had a sexual relationship with the spinster, who was 57 years his senior, the court heard.
Benjamin Field and Smith also allegedly embarked on a “campaign of ‘mirror writing’” - leaving messages for Moore-Martin in her home, which she believed were from God.
The court heard Farquhar, who taught part-time at the University of Buckingham, suffered night terrors and hallucinations and would sleepwalk and fall over, hitting his head.
Friends noticed the bachelor appeared drunk and would slur his speech and he told them he thought he was losing his mind, Oliver Saxby QC, prosecuting, told the court.
“But it seems likely that what he was drinking - the whisky, for instance - was being topped up with near-neat alcohol,” Saxby said.
“The obvious way round someone saying they only wanted a small glass, only wanted one more?
“Supplement it with neat alcohol, provide them with a glass of whisky - something with a strong taste apt to mask the taste of drugs and pop some neat alcohol in to give it a ‘supercharged’ strength.”
Saxby said Farquhar’s drinks were topped up with bioethanol and poteen – a high strength Irish alcohol – and his food, such as chocolate and toast, laced with drugs.
The jury was told Farquhar recorded in his handwritten journal the experience of suffering hallucinations – including becoming “paralysed” at the sight of bright lights appearing in front of him while he was out driving.
Saxby alleged that after Farquhar changed his will three times in two years to benefit Benjamin Field and Smith, he had to die.
He said: “And Peter Farquhar needed to die, at some point was going to have to die. And when he did, everyone was going to think it was down to Peter Farquhar’s terrible ill-health, his alcoholism - perhaps even suicide.
“Peter Farquhar was also questioning his faith, something that defined him. He was worried that God no longer cared for him. He also spoke of losing things and of finding them in odd places.”
Benjamin Field and Smith deny charges of murder, conspiracy to murder and possession of an article for the use in fraud.
Field, of Wellingborough Road, Olney, Buckinghamshire, also denies an alternative charge of attempted murder. But he has admitted four charges of fraud and two of burglary.
In addition Smith, of Penhalvean, Redruth, Cornwall, denies two charges of fraud and one of burglary.
Tom Field, also of Wellingborough Road, Olney, Buckinghamshire, denies a single charge of fraud.