A church warden jailed for murder after drugging and killing a university lecturer is mounting a fresh appeal.

Benjamin Field, 35, was convicted in 2019 of murdering Peter Farquhar, 69, in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire. Field admitted to fraudulently being in relationships with the pensioners as part of his plan to get them to change their wills.

Field manipulated Mr Farquhar, a former English lecturer, into believing he was losing his mind by secretly drugging him, and spiked his whisky in the lead-up to his death.

A hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London will take place on Thursday, April 16, in Benjamin Field’s appeal against his murder conviction.

At a previous hearing, Field's barrister David Jeremy KC argued that there was no evidence Mr Farquhar had been deceived into drinking the drugged whisky.

Mr Jeremy said: "Mr Farquhar knew what he was being given and knew who he was being given it by."

He argued that the previous decision by the Court of Appeal in March 2021 was influenced by "moral disapproval" rather than the legal evidence.

He said: "In March 2021, this court allowed its moral disapproval of what Field had done to deflect it from its duty to apply the law and upheld Field's conviction for doing something that on the evidence of that night he did not do, that is cause the death of Peter Farquhar."

Field appeared at the hearing via videolink from HMP Frankland in Durham.

During his 2019 trial at Oxford Crown Court, prosecutors said Field had drugged Mr Farquhar over several months, aiming to make his death appear accidental or self-inflicted.

Field was found not guilty of conspiracy to murder Ms Moore-Martin and of attempted murder.

His crimes were the subject of a 2023 BBC drama called The Sixth Commandment, starring Timothy Spall as Farquhar.

Field, a former church warden from Olney, was jailed for at least 36 years in 2019.

The appeal has been referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Field admitted to fraudulently being in relationships with the pensioners as part of his plan to get them to change their wills.

He manipulated Ms Anne Moore-Martin, a retired headteacher, by writing messages on her mirrors purporting to be from God.

Field’s legal team argues that he did not cause Mr Farquhar’s death through deception or force.