A paranoid cannabis user who tortured his 93-year-old friend for more than 24 hours has been jailed for murder. Samuel Field, 40, subjected Martin Glynn to a sustained attack at his home in Desborough, Northamptonshire, in September 2024, punching, kicking, stamping on and strangling the elderly man.
Field, who denied murder, was found guilty after a trial at Northampton Crown Court and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years. The court heard that Field, in an 'aggressive paranoid state', made voice recordings during the attack, talking about a conspiracy and accusing Mr Glynn of giving away a key to his home.
Prosecutor Adrian Langdale KC said Field was 'effectively torturing and interrogating' Mr Glynn, who had been a friend for nearly 20 years. The victim had travelled over two hours by bus to Field's home on 19 September. The attack lasted around 28 hours before Field called an ambulance, leaving Mr Glynn motionless on the floor for many hours.
Mr Glynn died three months later from pneumonia, having deteriorated due to brain injuries sustained in the assault. Sentencing, Mr Justice Eyre noted that Mr Glynn was 'in no position to put up any resistance' and that Field continued using cannabis despite knowing it worsened his mental health.
The court also heard that Field had previously been jailed for assaulting a three-year-old child in 2007 and a one-year-old baby in 2008. Mr Langdale described these as 'chilling echoes' of the murder, as Field targeted the head area of vulnerable individuals in all three cases.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Glynn's family described him as a 'quiet, soft-spoken man' and said the impact of losing him has been 'very distressing'. Detective Sergeant Megan Scotney of the East Midlands special operations unit expressed condolences, calling Mr Glynn 'kind, gentle, loyal' and his murder 'cruel and calculated'.
