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Catching a killer (ch4)

92 replies

Pinkbonbon · 13/01/2020 21:58

Anyone else watching this?!

Poor fella finally thought he had found love at 67 (kept a diary about how happy he was n everything) only to be poisoned by the bastard. Who then killed another person too.

Absolutely heart breaking.
Hope he never found out what was happening to him.

OP posts:
purpleme12 · 16/01/2020 22:41

And it looked like he was planning it again for that other old woman

Inappropriatefemale · 17/01/2020 00:34

I was reading some newspapers online today and some school friends of Fields were saying that at school he was very arrogant and thought he was smarter than the teachers and he would tell them so.

Sidge · 17/01/2020 08:29

The woman died of natural causes a few months later. So he couldn’t be found guilty of that.

Inappropriatefemale · 17/01/2020 08:33

Exactly and he got 36 years! Very excessive I think.

Heyjude20 · 17/01/2020 08:40

Excessive?! He planned to do it to loads of other men and women! He killed a man ffs. How is that excessive?! Oh have 10 years and be free to do it again!

Inappropriatefemale · 17/01/2020 08:41

When you compare it to other crimes and sentences then imo it’s pretty excessive.

Child killers get less and I’m not just referring to Campbell.

Inappropriatefemale · 17/01/2020 08:42

25/30 years would be sufficient.

purpleme12 · 17/01/2020 08:44

@Sidge the police were investigating him for her murder

IrmaFayLear · 17/01/2020 08:51

What did strike me was the huge amount of police on the case. Did it really take that many people - and that length of time - to sort it out? I remember watching the case of the bloke in Oxford killed for his valuable Ebay books. Perhaps it's because I know about such things, but the police were very slow off the mark about connecting his book dealing to his murder.

I also thought too much was missing from this documentary. Surely someone would have known Fields was courting several people from the same village. They mentioned that the lady down the road was also a churchgoer. Did no one from the church raise an eyebrow?

Sidge · 17/01/2020 08:56

@purpleme12 oh I know, he’d been planning to kill her I think and had certainly groomed her.

What I meant was she had a seizure, went into hospital, told her family member about Field who then called the police. She died in a home naturally a few months later after he’d been arrested I think, so he couldn’t have been found guilty of her murder. I’m surprised he didn’t get charged with plotting to kill her or whatever the charge would have been.

Inappropriatefemale · 17/01/2020 08:56

Why didn’t anyone realise that it wasn’t possible that a man Bens age would fancy someone Peters age and imo Peter looked far older than he was and this was even before Field had started drugging him and stuff.

I don’t get how Field managed to trick so many of them.

The vicar who said that in gay relationships then some younger guys like older guys, mmn I’m not aware of this and like I said, Peter looked far older and wasn’t modern in the way he dressed or anything. I think ‘good people’ can be more naive than most.

IrmaFayLear · 17/01/2020 09:10

I think people don't interfere. They might mutter but shy away from actually saying anything, for fear of ruining their own relationship with the "enamoured". I mean, look what happened when (allegedly) Prince William told Harry to slow down on the Meghan Markle wooing. They fell out. Probably Peter's brother thought he had found some happiness, even if it was unconventional or even a bit suspicious. You might privately suspect that they are after a cut of the older person's will, not out to murder them.

IrmaFayLear · 17/01/2020 09:14

There are plenty of younger gay guys with older gay guys: rich old gay guys, just as there are younger partners of heterosexual older rich people.

I know one man who has a series of much younger partners. I guess each gains from the relationship, but of course one asks oneself if the young, attractive man would be with the guy 30 years older than him if the older guy was Mr Average instead of Mr Loaded.

Inappropriatefemale · 17/01/2020 09:16

Yes there are of course young gay men with older men but the vicar kind of suggested it was a ‘thing’ and I don’t think it’s a common thing strictly for the male gay community.

IrmaFayLear · 17/01/2020 09:17

I suppose the vicar didn't want to appear judgemental. If only he had!

Inappropriatefemale · 17/01/2020 09:18

Well this is true and vicars aren’t ‘meant’ to be judgmental are they.

GenuineKlatchianPottery · 17/01/2020 16:48

I watched this yesterday and felt so sorry for Peter, “hearing” him through his journals and his happiness at being in love and his thoughts for his future with Ben was heart wrenching.
I also watched the next episode about Natalie Hemming and this really hit me hard, a young woman with 3 children in an abusive relationship. Killed by her partner because she wanted to break up with him.
The similarities between the two murderers struck me, they were both so emotionless and cold when being questioned.
There’s a follow up on her eldest daughter on iPlayer called Behind Closed Doors: Through the Eyes of the Child that I’m going to try and find.

ktpurplej · 17/01/2020 17:51

I used to live in the village, some of my family still do. I only live a few miles away now. I'm also friends with the girlfriend they showed she is one of the nicest sweetest people I know, it was very hard to watch.

DuckWillow · 17/01/2020 18:18

One if the most chilling things for me in the documentary was of Ben Field taunting the elderly lady with dementia in a video. It upset me so much.

Toddlerteaplease · 17/01/2020 20:19

Just watching it now. Peter Farquhar sounded like a lovely man.

guiltynetter · 18/01/2020 21:30

a bit late to this but I've just got around to watching it, I wish I hadn't, it has really upset me! the thought that people like Ben field really exist is terrifying. the video of him taunting somebody with dementia was like something out of a horror film. and poor Peter, he was clearly a hugely intelligent man and he knew something wasnt right with his health but he didn't ever suspect it could be Ben. I dont think I'll sleep tonight..

purpleme12 · 18/01/2020 22:49

Yes if you let them these things can certainly be worrying

IrmaFayLear · 19/01/2020 15:27

Peter did seem like a nice man. I suppose there's no fool like an old fool, and he did keep asking himself in his diaries why someone like Ben would like someone like him. He answered his own question. If something is too good to be true, then it usually is.

With the elderly lady down the road (and it seems the one in the care home) it was more of a case of preying on someone whose mind was beginning to fail and thus more easily conned. Fields played the long game with Peter, and I don't think Peter really had anyone close enough (we don't know how often he saw his brother) to tell him to beware.

Inappropriatefemale · 19/01/2020 15:30

Imagine Peter being single his whole life and then taking up with a student, and one who killed him!

Ben’s eyes looked quite chilling in one or 2 of the pictures that he had taken with Peter, it’s like he was scheming, which he probably was although I doubt he schemed from day dot, Field must’ve went as far as to have sex with Peter to convince him too, very strange and evil man, and the politeness in the Police Station was Hmm

Wilma55 · 20/01/2020 15:06

There's a BBC podcast about this case called A Killer in the Congregation. This has more about his other victim Ann