Two men bailed over death of former Manchester Grammar School teacher

Peter Farquhar, 69, died in a village in Buckingham along with his neighbour Ann Moore-Martin, 83.

Author: Victoria GloverPublished 19th Jan 2018

Two men arrested on suspicion murdering two retired teachers who lived on the same street have been released on bail.

Peter Farqhuar, 69, (pictured) died in 2015 in Buckingham, where he moved after teaching English at Manchester Grammar School for 34 years.

His close neighbour, Ann Moore-Martin, died 18 months later - aged 83.

Church warden Ben Field, 27, from Northamptonshire, and magician Martyn Smith, 31, from Cornwall, were arrested on suspicion of two counts of murder, two counts of conspiracy to murder, two counts of suspicion of fraud by false representation, conspiracy to defraud and one count of burglary.

They have both been released on bail until February 13.

Smith and Field, both students at the University of Buckingham where Mr Farquhar was a guest lecturer, helped look after him in the months before he died.

The pair persuaded him to publish his novels and were planning to make a documentary TV programme about him.

Field, who was Mr Farquhar's lodger, was also a church warden at Stowe Parish Church where Peter was a lay preacher

A death certificate has shown that the death of Mr Farquhar was ruled as an accident at an inquest held in November 2015 which found that he died of "acute alcohol intoxication''.

An inquest has not yet been held into the death of Ms Moore-Martin and police have said the causes of death for the two pensioners were "yet to be determined''.

Police searched four properties in three locations around the country as part of the inquiry.