Desborough man accused of 'savagely punching, kicking and stamping on the head' of 93-year-old victim in state of 'paranoia', as murder trial opens

A jury in the opening day of a murder trial has heard how Martin Glynn, 93, travelled alone for more than two hours by bus from his home in Kings Heath, Northampton, to Desborough, to see his friend of a decade, and walked into a ‘brewing storm’.

When he arrived at the flat, Samuel Michael Field, then 39, punched, kicked and stamped on his head before throttling him, breaking two bones in the his neck and subjecting him to a 28-hour ordeal before police arrived to find him lying ‘dumped’ in a shower tray.

Field, dressed in a dark jumper and trousers, wearing glasses, sat alone in the dock today (Monday, April 20) accompanied only by a custody officer.

Please note this report contains descriptions of prolonged violence. It is not suitable for children.

Opening the case at Northampton Crown Court, Adrian Langdale KC said Mr Glynn arrived at Field’s home behind the One Stop Shop in Gold Street at 11.24am on September 19, 2024, after a bus journey from his home in Park Square, Northampton that involved several changes.

Although he used a frame to walk, he was able to live and travel independently.

"Over the course of the next 28 hours,” said Mr Langdale, “this defendant, suffering from paranoia caused by cannabis and deliberately not sleeping, would repeatedly and savagely punch, kick and stamp on Mr Glynn’s head, and then he would strangle (him).

He said the was ‘effectively torturing him.’

By 4.22pm that day, Mr Glynn was lying on the floor of the living room, the prosecution alleges.

‘Ticking time-bomb’

The prosecution says that Field had consumed a large amount of cannabis that had made him paranoid, so much so that he believed there was a conspiracy against him involving multiple people including his landlord, a probation worker, an Irish traveller and the Indian shopkeeper of the neighbouring One Stop Shop.

When Mr Glynn would not give Field the answers he wanted about the alleged conspiracy, he ‘continued to beat him’.

"This defendant simply assaulted him again and again and again,” said Mr Langdale.

Field did not phone an ambulance until 3.40pm the following day (September 20).

The crown says that Field had made some attempts to clean the scene with tissues and had called an ambulance to ‘cover his own backside,’ said Mr Langdale.

“He knew he would get into trouble and go back to prison,” he added.

He said that Field subjected Mr Glynn to an ‘interrogation’.

“This defendant was a ticking time-bomb in the days and hours leading up to the attack on Mr Glynn,” said Mr Langdale.

He said he was becoming increasingly abusive to Mr Glynn, to his own brother and mother, to his probation officer and his landlord, and was making ‘bizarre accusations’ about a conspiracy against him.

‘So hard he fell to the floor’

It was into that ‘brewing storm’ that Mr Glynn walked, said Mr Langdale.

"He thought he was his friend, but he would end up being almost immediately attacked by this defendant. Field later ‘minimised’ his actions, said the prosecution, calling him ‘manipulative’,

The jury was told that Field admitted in police interview that he had started assaulting his friend on September 19 by punching him ‘so hard he fell to the floor’.

Mr Langdale said: “He had repeatedly kicked him and stamped on his head and strangled him.

"The attack was more prolonged and brutal and lengthier than Field will ever admit."

He said Field had not sought medical help because he didn’t want to get caught.

When Mr Glynn was finally able to get medical help, he was found to have extensive bruising around his face, shoulder and arm, two broken bones in his neck and three ‘significant’ bleeds on his brain.

He never walked again

Field was charged with grievous bodily harm, the jury was told, and Mr Glynn was admitted to hospital, and eventually to a care home. He suffered cognitive decline and never recovered from his injuries.

The crown say the injuries inflicted by Field caused the ‘rapid decline’ in Mr Glynn’s health and he died on boxing day, 2024, three months after the alleged assault, after eventually losing the ability to communicate.

Mr Langdale said: “A man who, on his own, travelled in excess of two hours, changing buses several times, who had spoken fluently and looked after himself at home, never left the hospital or the confines of the care home ever again. He never walked again, he never fed himself again.”

He said, after his arrest, the defendant gave a ‘lengthy and rambling account’ of what happened.

The jury was told he was in a ‘heightened state of agitation’.

Mr Langdale said that, during the trial, Field will tell the court that on the day of the attack he saw Mr Glynn talking to a woman he didn’t know, and something was passed between them.

This made Field ‘deeply suspicious’.

The crown says this is a story that Field has come up with, retrospectively, to fit the evidence.

Some of the events of September 19 were caught on a blink doorbell, which had been taken down by the time the police arrived at the flat and has never been recovered.

But the footage will be shown to the jury during the trail.

Alleged sexual assault

The court was also told that Field will allege he was sexually assaulted by Mr Glynn as he arrived at his flat on September 19.

Mr Langdale said: "We anticipate that the defendant will now suggest that Martin Glynn.. without any reason, tried to put his hand down the joggers of the accused, with the insinuation being made that the deceased, out of the blue, decided at that precise moment in time to try to sexually assault this defendant and in the event of that, the defendant lost control.

"Did the deceased, for the first time in having known the defendant for a decade, choose that moment when he was angry, anxious and high on drugs, choose that moment to sexually assault him?”

The court also saw messages from the defendant to his mother alleging sexual and physical abuse in his childhood.

“The crown’s case,” said Mr Langdale, “is that these allegations are unduly scurrilous, without foundation, and used to justify the senseless attack he carried out.

"Even if what he had to say was.. true, and there was an attempt at a sexual assault, that would not come anywhere close to allowing or justifying the battering to death of a 93-year-old man who was nine stone in total.”

Phantom

Field also claims that he had put Mr Glynn in the shower on September 20, and he had fallen over, causing some of the injuries.

Police eventually found Mr Glynn ‘dumped unceremoniously in the shower tray,’ said Mr Langdale.

The jury was shown images of Mr Glynn’s dentures placed on a side table in Field’s living room, as well as cleaning fluid placed on the floor.

They were also shown some messages and voicenotes sent by Field at the beginning of September 2024, in which he calls himself ‘Phantom’.

In the messages he accused his female landlord of ‘scamming him’ and made legal threats. He also sent increasingly agitated messages to his mum, unleashing a ‘torrent of abuse,’ said Mr Langdale.

Samuel Michael Field, now 40, of Gold Street, Desborough, is accused of murder and the alternate counts of manslaughter and grievous bodily harm. He denies all the charges against him.

Earlier in the day, a jury panel of 34 members had been brought into court at 10.30am to be given instructions by red-robed The Honourable Mr Justice Stephen Eyre KC, a High Court judge sitting at Northampton Crown Court for the duration of the three-week trial.

He asked the panel to answer a questionnaire to assess their suitability for jury selection.

A jury of seven men and five women was selected. They were given warnings by the judge that they should not discuss the case with anyone outside of the jury room, and that they should ignore media coverage and any commentary around it by members of the public.

The case continues.