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We live in picturesque village at centre of BBC true crime drama The Sixth Commandment – I ‘was on murderer’s hit list’
AN elderly man living in the picturesque village at the centre of a BBC true crime drama has claimed he was on the murderer's hit list.
Shocked villagers in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire, yesterday praised The Sixth Commandment, starring Timothy Spall and Anne Reid.
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The series, which started on Monday, tells how evil Ben Field, 20, conned pensioners and Ann Moore-Martin out of more than £225,000.
And for one elderly man, who asked not to be identified, the drama brought back even more chilling memories.
As he stood at his front door just a stone's throw from Peter's former house, he claimed: "I suspect I might also have been on Field's list of potential victims. So perhaps I had a lucky escape.
"I used to see him around Peter's house and he tried to be very chatty. But there was something about him that never seemed quite right.
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"So I always refused to engage with him. Now I feel guilty that I didn't flag up my suspicions. That might possibly have saved two lives.
"As for the TV series, I've only seen the first episode so far. But it's a very accurate picture of what happened. Field was an evil person."
Field went through a "betrothal ceremony" with gay teacher Peter before suffocating him in 2015.
Then to make it look like the lonely bachelor had drunk himself to death, he placed a half bottle of whisky by his side.
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The student was also grooming Ann, who lived three doors away, and began a sexual relationship with her before she died two years later aged 83.
Although he was also charged with murdering her, a jury acquitted him.
Other villagers claimed the new show was "very accurate", but many did not want to talk about what happened to their former neighbours.
One said: "It was too close to home, I'm sorry."
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The neat detached houses in Manor Park, where both Peter and Ann used to live, have both been extensively changed since those days.
Former BT engineer John White, 74, who lives just round the corner, said: "I used to see Peter wandering about and Ann out walking her dog.
"I knew them to nod to and say 'good morning'. But no more than that. Of course, it was all shock and horror when the truth came out – nobody could have imagined that.
"But it was a long time ago – it's rather old hat now."
Another neighbour Becky Goodwin, 32, said: "I've only lived here two months so knew nothing of all this.
"It's not the sort of thing you expect to happen in a quiet little village like this. But, of course, I'll be watching the TV series!"
Down at the village's 17th century Wheatsheaf pub, few regulars knew anything of Peter and Ann.
"They were church people rather than pub people," claimed one.
"But we live in a very sad world when this can happen. You have to be a bit crazy.
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"Everybody is talking about the TV series. It wasn't filmed in the village – I think it was in Bath or Bristol – but from what I've seen so far it's very well done.
"Some people, though, are very sore that the story is being dredged up again. They feel that things like this are perhaps better forgotten."
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