Overview
- Field’s counsel, David Jeremy KC, argued the trial judge wrongly equated giving alcohol or Dalmane with causing ingestion, saying only force, threats or deception about the substance could satisfy legal causation.
- The Crown Prosecution Service, represented by David Perry KC, told judges the conviction is safe and that Field set in motion a chain of causation, stressing he was not a bystander to Farquhar’s death.
- The case returned to the Court of Appeal after a Criminal Cases Review Commission referral, following failed appeals in 2021–2022, with a hearing on 5 March 2026 before Lord Justice Edis, Mr Justice Goose and Mr Justice Butcher.
- Field was convicted in 2019 at Oxford Crown Court and sentenced to life with a 36‑year minimum term after prosecutors alleged he spiked Farquhar’s whisky with sedatives during a manipulation campaign to secure an inheritance.
- Post-mortem findings recorded acute alcohol toxicity and later identified sleeping medication in Farquhar’s bloodstream, and Field appeared at the hearing by video link from HMP Frankland as the court reserved judgment.