The chilling true crime story depicted in the limited series The Sixth Commandment may get a disturbing coda: The release of the man convicted in the gaslighting and murder of a 69-year-old university lecturer whom he convinced to marry him and put him in his will.Now the killer, described by prosecutors as calculating and ruthless, has been given a chance to appeal his conviction. Related Police suspect homophobia in murders of four men found floating in river In 2011, Benjamin Field, then 20 years old and a candidate for the priesthood, met university lecturer Peter Farquhar while he was a student at the University of Buckingham, England.Taken with the handsome and bright student in his Romantic Literature class, Farquhar would eventually invite Field to be a lodger at his home in the village of Maids Moreton, northwest of London. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Soon after, prosecutors said, Field convinced Farquhar a celibate bachelor, lay minister, and author that he was in love with him, despite their 40-year age difference.The two held a private betrothal ceremony, and Farquhar changed his will on three different occasions to benefit Field.Over the four years before Farquhars death, prosecutors told the court that Field engaged in a sustained gaslighting plot aimed at making Farquhar question his sanity. The older mans drinks were topped up with bioethanol and poteen, a high-strength Irish alcohol, and his food was laced with drugs, prosecutors said. Field exploited the resulting night terrors and hallucinations, which Farquhar recorded in a handwritten journal.During the trial, Field a ministers son who was diagnosed variously as having narcissistic personality disorder or psychopathic personality disorder admitted drugging Farquhar with benzodiazepines and hallucinogens to torment him, but denied killing him.He did it for no other reason other than it was cruel, to upset and torment Peter purely out of meanness, his defense team told the jury, claiming there was no evidence Fields behavior led to murder. But prosecutors claimed Field had a profound fascination in controlling and manipulating and humiliating and killing. After Farquhars last change to benefit Field in his will, the 69-year-old had to die, prosecutors said.One night in October 2015, with Farquhar drugged to incapacity, Field suffocated him with a pillow when he was too weak to resist, prosecutors said.Field left a half-empty bottle of whisky next to Farquhar to create the misconception he had drunk himself to death, they told the jury, the culmination of a long campaign by Field to convince Farquhars family that he abused alcohol, despite no previous history that hed ever done so.Field delivered the eulogy at Farquhars funeral and inherited his estate, which he used to buy a nearby townhouse. But it would be two years before suspicion fell on Field in Farquhars death only after the death of a woman in her 80s who died of natural causes before Field could allegedly make her a victim of a similar manipulative scheme.Field allegedly plotted against his second victim in the same village, Ann Moore-Martin, 83, with whom he entered into a sexual relationship. Prosecutors showed video evidence, recorded by Field, of the elderly woman servicing him.Gaslighting Moore-Martin took the form of messages scrawled on mirrors in her home, which terrorized her, prosecutors told the court. She, too, was persuaded to change her will before she died 18 months after her intimate relationship with Field began.In 2019, following a massive investigation and the exhumation of Farquhars body, Field was sentenced to life in prison for his first victims murder. In his appeal, Field is relying on a legal theory rejected by the judge in his original case, the BBC reports.His defense argued that as a matter of British law, an individuals deceptive conduct could only amount to murder if the deception was related to the nature of the act, and not their intention in committing it.The UKs Criminal Cases Review Commission said it would refer the case to the Court of Appeal over whether Farquhar had been tricked into drinking his final glass of whisky, or had done so willingly.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.