Friend turned killer: 40-year-old convicted of murdering 93-year-old over conspiracy delusions

A paranoid cannabis user who tortured his vulnerable 93-year-old friend over a period of more than 24 hours has been found guilty of his murder.

Martin Glynn was punched, kicked, stamped on, and strangled by Samuel Field, 40, at Field’s home in Desborough, Northamptonshire, in September 2024.

The strangling led to the fracturing of a bone in his neck, leaving Mr. Glynn with severe bruising and swelling to his face and body.

Footage from a hidden camera inside the flat showed Field continuing as though nothing had happened, while Mr. Glynn’s feet could be seen as he lay motionless on the floor.

Mr. Glynn never walked again after the attack, during which Field made a series of voice recordings about a conspiracy, and died three months later on Boxing Day.

On Wednesday, police said a jury at Northampton Crown Court took less than four hours to convict Field of murdering the elderly man after an 11-day trial.

In the prosecution’s opening speech last month, Adrian Langdale KC told the court how Mr. Glynn was fit and healthy enough to make a journey of more than two hours, using multiple buses, to the defendant’s home in Gold Street, from his home in Northampton, on September 19.

Mr. Langdale had told jurors that Field was “effectively torturing” his friend of nearly 20 years while suffering from paranoia caused by cannabis.

The prosecutor said that by 4:22 p.m. that afternoon, Mr. Glynn was “sprawled helplessly on the living-room floor” and the assaults continued as Field questioned Mr. Glynn about an “imagined conspiracy.”

In recordings made by Field, the court heard he talked about a conspiracy that “everyone is in for him” and accused Mr. Glynn of giving a key to his home to an Irish traveller.

Mr. Langdale had said Field was “effectively torturing and interrogating” as he tried to get Mr. Glynn to confess until he called an ambulance around 28 hours after the attack started.

When authorities arrived, Mr. Glynn was taken to Northampton General Hospital, where he was diagnosed with multiple bleeds on the brain and a fractured neck.

The court heard that Field’s mental health had declined in the preceding months leading up to the attack.

Field, formerly of Gold Street, Desborough, will be sentenced on May 29.

‘Dangerous, violent man’

In a statement after the verdict, deputy senior investigating officer Detective Sergeant Megan Scotney, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said: “Samuel Field described Mr. Glynn as his best friend of almost two decades.

“However, instead of looking out for Mr. Glynn, Field exploited their friendship and tortured the 93-year-old over 10 hours, inflicting the most horrific injuries on a vulnerable man, which ultimately cost him his life.

“Mr. Glynn lived independently and through his loyalty to Field, traveled more than two hours from his home in Northampton to Desborough at least once, sometimes twice a week to visit him.

“Only Field knows why he attacked Mr. Glynn that day, but I am pleased the jury has seen him for what he truly is – a dangerous, violent man.

“Nothing can bring Mr. Glynn back, but I very much hope this guilty verdict offers his loved ones some comfort. Our thoughts remain with them all in their grief.”