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 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.

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 Northampton.

"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).

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

The prosecution says that Field had consumed a large amount of cannabis that had made him paranoid.

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

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.

“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.

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

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

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.

Field was charged with grievous bodily harm, the jury was told, and Mr Glynn was admitted to hospital and then a care home.

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.

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.

The case continues.