Alleged killer forced ‘tortured confession’ out of 93-year-old man as he ‘lay on the floor’
A man accused of killing his elderly friend in a state of ‘paranoia’ recorded his alleged victim ‘admitting’ to giving a key to his flat to ‘an Irishman’.
This morning (Tuesday, April 21), on the second day of a murder trial, the prosecution said their belief is that Martin Glynn, 93, was attacked almost as soon as he arrived at the Desborough flat of defendant Samuel Field.
"The first assault was to deliver a mighty blow, knocking him backwards,” said Adrian Langdale KC, prosecuting.
He said this was when the first bleed to Mr Glynn’s brain likely occurred.
"Having been punched to the floor, onto the ground, Martin Glynn will stay prone in that position for what will amount to over 24 hours before he (Field) does anything about it.”
He said that when Field phoned the emergency services, he was trying to ‘cover his own tracks’.
Field, 40, is standing trial for murder and the alternate counts of manslaughter and grievous bodily harm, which he denies. Martin Glynn, 93, had travelled from his home in Kings Heath, Northampton, to Desborough, by bus on the morning of the alleged attack.
‘Conspiracy’
Today in courtroom three, prosecutor Adrian Langdale KC concluded his opening by showing jury members images from CCTV cameras and an internal Blink camera inside Field’s flat.
Field listened intently from the dock and made notes using a pencil.
The court was also shown text messages and voice notes Field sent to others, and stored on his own phone, which demonstrated his state of mind in the run-up to the alleged murder, on September 19, 2024.
Mr Langdale said during yesterday’s hearing that Field believed Mr Glynn to be part of a conspiracy involving his landlord, probation officers, his mother and brother, an Irish Traveller and an Indian shopkeeper.
The jury was shown phone messages and transcripts of voice notes to Mr Glynn’s mother that accused her and her brother of a range of crimes against him. Mr Langdale said that, from September 1, which was 19 days before the attack on Mr Glynn, Field was ‘building’ towards interlinking multiple people in a ‘conspiracy’ against him.
Field said he was ‘seeking legal advice’ against his mother.
The jury also saw messages from his mum telling him she ‘believed him’ in attempt to ‘calm him down’.
“You are fighting with yourself,” she told him.
Mr Langdale said: “The threats continued for many days with his mum , then he turns to his brother.”
Final images of Mr Glynn shown to jury
A probation officer had also called Field on September 18, the day before Martin Glynn at arrived at his Desborough flat. She had noticed changes in his behaviour in the days before the alleged killing.
"She’s getting more and more concerned as the days go on,” said Mr Langdale.
The court also saw Mr Glynn’s bus ticket. It showed he left his home in Kings Heath, Northampton, on September 19 at 8.42am and arrived in Desborough at 11.07am. His journey, which took more than two hours, incorporated several bus changes.
CCTV stills showed Mr Glynn using his blue walker to go from the bus stop, crossing High Street at the zebra crossing, and moving in the direction of Gold Street, where he arrived at Field’s flat at 11.24am. The time of his arrival was recorded on a Blink camera.
“These will be the last images you will see of him in the outside world, walking himself, and capable of looking after himself,” said Mr Langdale.
He went on: “Within a matter of seconds Field will start assaulting him.”
‘Tortured confession’
An hour after Mr Glynn arrived at the flat, and while the prosecution say he was already assaulting him, Field’s personal wellbeing advisor from the probation service called him. In evidence she is expected to tell the court that she was concerned about the defendant’s ‘irrational behaviour’.
Field also contacted his former partner on Facebook messenger during the alleged assault.
"In an amongst the assault, here is Field dealing with probation, dealing with the well-being advisor, dealing with an ex-girlfriend,” said Mr Langdale.
“He’s calmly broken off the abuse and violence at 3.51pm on the first day to send a message to his ex-girlfriend and he takes a nine-minute call from the well-being advisor right in the middle."
Mr Langdale said these actions were five hours into the alleged attack on Mr Glynn, at which point he was already lying on the floor.
At 4.41pm Mr Langdale said Field forced Mr Glynn into a ‘tortured confession’.
He made him record voice note, which the jury was shown a transcript of.
"You will hear the voice of Martin Glynn, it’s harrowing, I’ll warn you now,” said Mr Langdale.
In the voice note, Mr Glynn is forced to admit he has given an ‘Irishman’ a key to Field’s flat.
"There’s a conspiracy in his mind by this stage, that everyone is in for him,” said Mr Langdale.
‘That’s a lie’
The jury was told that in the early hours of September 20, Field contacted his drug dealer.
Then at 3.14pm on September 20, he again had a phone call of more than seven minutes with his well-being advisor. The prosecution says that Mr Glynn was still on the living room floor at this time. But during that call, Field broke off and told his advisor that Glynn was ‘getting out of the shower’ and needed help.
"That’s a lie,” said Mr Langdale.
He said that Blink video footage from inside the flat showed Mr Glynn’s feet lying on the floor at that time.
Over the next few hours, Field phoned the emergency services several times.
“28 hours into this attack and torture, he’s only now got round to calling an ambulance,” said Mr Langdale.
Field’s muddled communications with the 999 operators contained more allegations of a conspiracy but he also told the call-handler that Mr Glynn had ‘come out of the showed with a blue towel around him.’
"That’s a lie,” said Mr Langdale.
"There’s no blue towel, there’s no coming out of the shower. As you’ll see.. Mr Glynn is still very much alive on the floor.”
Found in the bathroom
The prosecution says that Field began a ‘clean-up operation’ at some point after 4.50pm on September 20. Cleaning fluid was found around the flat and officers noticed a strong smell when they arrived.
At 9.05pm he again phoned the emergency services and admitted to attacking Mr Glynn who he described as his ‘long-term friend’.
He told the operator he was ‘suffering with mental health’ and said he had been ‘trying to ask for a lot of help’.
He then put Mr Glynn on the phone to the operator but he was only able to say ‘yes’ and ‘huh’ between Field’s talking.
Field admitted hitting Mr Glynn ‘a lot’.
He then allegedly climbed out of his own bedroom window, leaving his keys in his clothes on his bed, and was met by police at the end of his driveway where he immediately told them ‘I have assaulted someone.’
The officers were able to climb through an open window into the flat where they found Mr Glynn, lying on the floor, wearing a dressing gown with blood on the walls.
The jury saw a photo of the victim lying on the floor and heard that when he spoke to officers he was confused and believed he was in his own bed.
‘He had his hands around my neck and squeezed’
Mr Glynn was taken to Northampton General Hospital and the following morning he gave an account of what had happened to the officer in the case, Liam Bergin. Nurses assessed him as in a ‘suitable condition’ to be interviewed.
Mr Glynn told the officer : “Samuel had his hands around my neck and squeezed.’
Mr Langdale said that was ‘accurate’ because the defendant had accepted he did that.
“He said while he was doing that, Samuel Field had said he was going to kill him,” added Mr Langdale.
“He describes Samuel hitting him over the head with something.”
Mr Langdale also told the jury that Mr Glynn claimed Field wouldn’t let him be friends with others, and that every time he saw him he would make him give him £200 in an envelope. He said this had been going on for a ‘long time’, and described it as ‘blackmail’.
Mr Langdale said Field was ‘manipulative’, and ‘used the old man to get money before he eventually killed him.’
‘And bam, bam.’
Meanwhile Field was arrested on suspicion of GBH and told police in interview that he had ‘not slept for two days’.
"Things have been going on, people have been going in and out of my windows,” he said in interview.
He was interviewed again the following day and told officers there was a ‘story’ behind the assault, and that people were ‘trying to set him up’ to put him in prison.
He told officers his landlord had not got compliant gas safety certificates, and that Martin Glynn had been meeting with the ‘Irish man’.
"It took me ten hours to get the truth out of Martin,” he told officers.
"I stamped on his head like that and bam, bam.”
Field then allegedly said: “I asked him where do you want it next?”
He said he kicked him in the ear and it ‘just popped’.
He told officers he had ‘pressed on his windpipe’.
"He wasn’t pressing on his windpipe,” said Mr Langdale.
"He was strangling him.
"The police officer, understandably, hearing all this coming out of in interview.. says this sounds a bit like you were torturing him to get information.
And Mr Field replied to the officer, ‘Well I suppose you could say that’.
Field claimed he had given Mr Glynn an ice pack and offered him food while he was lying on the floor in the flat.
Mr Langdale said: “On September 19, Mr Glynn walked into the perfect storm and became part of this defendant’s conspiracy.
"None of that is a defence for inflicting a brutal attack on a 93-year-old.”
‘Why not just kill him?’
At the end of the prosecution opening, defence barrister Naeem Mian KC gave a short speech outlining his client’s defence.
He put to the jury that Field could have killed Mr Glynn that day, but he did not. Instead he phoned the emergency services.
"He had the time and he had the opportunity and he had the weapons, the knives that were found in his flat,” said Mr Mian.
"So if his intention was to kill Mr Glynn, why not just kill him.”
He added: “Why not just get away from the scene rather than stay?”
“My Glynn survives. He actually survives.
"He doesn’t die of the injuries that he (Field) accepts he inflicted.”
He said Mr Glynn had eventually died of pneumonia, three months later.
"The live issue is, what was it that actually caused his death,” said Mr Mian.
The trial continues.
Read our previous coverage here: