Paranoid cannabis user guilty of friend's murder

A paranoid cannabis user who tortured his 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.

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.

A jury at Northampton Crown Court took less than four hours to convict Field, formerly of Gold Street, Desborough, of murder. He will return to court for sentencing on 29 May.

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 several buses, from his home in Northampton to the defendant's home in Desborough, on 19 September.

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

The prosecutor said that by 16:22 BST 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 about 28 hours after the attack started.

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

"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."

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