Paranoid cannabis user recorded torture of 93-year-old man, jury told
Paranoid cannabis user recorded torture of 93-year-old man, jury told
Dave HiggensTue, April 21, 2026 at 12:44 PM UTC
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Northampton Crown and County Courts building (PA Archive)
A cannabis user recorded his attempts to get a 93-year-old man to confess to claims from his own paranoid conspiracies as he beat him during hours of torture, a jury has been told.
Prosecutors have told Northampton Crown Court that Martin Glynn was punched, kicked, stamped on and strangled in a “senseless attack” by Samuel Field at Field’s home in Desborough, Northamptonshire, in September 2024, and that Mr Glynn died three months later.
On Tuesday, prosecutor Adrian Langdale KC told a jury that Field made a series of voice recordings during the attack “when he (Mr Glynn) is forced effectively to make admissions”.
Continuing his opening address, Mr Langdale said jurors will be played what is “effectively a voice note of what can only be described as a tortured confession”.
The prosecutor said: “I use that word guardedly, but it was one that was suggested to him in interview.
“He effectively accepted what was going on at this stage was torture.”
Mr Langdale warned the jury that the recording was harrowing, adding: “He is clearly five or six hours into the beating. Very badly beaten. Undoubtedly bleeding heavily at that stage on the living room floor.”
He said the common thread in the recordings is Field talking about a conspiracy that “everyone is in for him” and centred around him accusing Mr Glynn of giving a key to his home to an Irish traveller.
The prosecutor said: “After each of the interrogations he will carry on beating to get the answers he wants him to give.”
He said Field was “effectively torturing and interrogating” as he tried to get Mr Glynn to confess.
Mr Langdale said Field did not call the ambulance service until more than 24 hours after the assaults began, but even then he only told the operator about his claims of a conspiracy.
The prosecutor said: “Twenty-eight hours into this abuse, this attack, this torture, he (Field) has only now got round to calling an ambulance.
“When he does, he is only interested in telling them about this conspiracy instead.”
Mr Langdale has told the jury Mr Glynn never walked again, dying on Boxing Day, three months after the attack on September 19-20 2014.
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He has said Field was “seemingly high on cannabis, suffering from paranoia caused by cannabis consumption and deliberately not sleeping”.
On Tuesday, Mr Langdale outlined the account Field gave to police in interview in which he admitted punching, stamping on and kicking Mr Glynn.
The prosecutor explained how, after the defendant admitted “pressing here on his windpipe” while saying “please don’t lie to me”, an officer said to Field: “This sounds a bit like you were torturing him to get information.”
Mr Langdale said Field replied: “I suppose you could say that.”
Naeem Mian KC, defending Field, asked the jury to consider two points: whether his client intended to kill Mr Glynn, and what actually caused his death.
Mr Mian told the jury: “One question you may wish to ask yourself is this: why not just kill him, to put it bluntly?
“He had the time, had the opportunity and he had the weapons.”
The barrister said: “If his intention was to kill him, why not just kill him?”
Mr Mian said his client admits inflicting “horrific injuries” on Mr Glynn.
But he told the jury: “What we know is that the unfortunate Mr Glynn survives.
“He actually survives and ultimately he does not die of those injuries that he (Field) accepts he inflicted.
“He dies, as the crown’s own pathologist will tell you, of pneumonia.”
Field, 40, formerly of Gold Street, Desborough, denies murder.
He also denies manslaughter, grievous bodily harm with intent and grievous bodily harm, which prosecutors explained to the jury are alternatives to the murder charge.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
