Minimum of 22 years in prison for ‘self-pitying’ murderer who killed the man he described as his ‘best friend’

During a 34-hour ordeal, Field attacked ‘softly-spoken’ churchgoer Martyn Glynn at his Desborough flat in September 2024, causing massive brain bleeds and broken neck bones.

Mr Glynn’s condition slowly deteriorated over the next three months, and he eventually died of pneumonia on December 26.

Field stood trial at Northampton Crown Court over 12 days in April and May, admitting attacking Mr Glynn, but denying that he had intended to murder him.

After he sacked his legal team, he continued representing himself at the trial.

But the jury saw through his bluster and convicted him of murder.

Today (Friday, May 29) Field returned to the same court, in front of High Court Judge Mr Justice Stephen Eyre, where he was handed his sentence of life in prison, with a minimum term of 22 years.

He said that Field was a man who was ‘prepared to use violence towards those who are vulnerable and at your mercy’.

Mr Glynn’s family said that they had suffered seeing ‘such evil bestowed on such a kind, gentle, caring, loving, giving, good humoured, inoffensive soul.’

It was the first time during the proceedings that Field has shown any emotion, crying as he claimed that Mr Glynn’s death had been ‘extremely difficult’ for him.

But Mr Justice Eyre called him ‘self-pitying,’ and criticised him for continuing to deny what he had done.

‘Extremely overwhelming and powerful punch’

As part of a bizarre cannabis-fuelled paranoia, he intermittently blamed his victim as well as his mum, brother, landlord, probation officer and a local shopkeeper for a ‘conspiracy’ against him, which he said meant he had to attack Mr Glynn to ‘get the truth out of him’.

Field had befriended Mr Glynn 20 years ago, when they were neighbours, and Mr Glynn had stood by him during his periods in prison, visiting him while he was in custody. Field briefly lived with Mr Glynn after he was released from prison.

The court heard, following a two-hour bus journey from his Northampton home, Martin Glynn arrived at Field’s flat at 11.24 on September 19, 2024.

Prosecutor Adrian Langdale KC said: “As soon as Mr Glynn walked through the door into the lounge, the defendant turned and immediately struck him with an extremely overwhelming and powerful punch.

“What followed.. was a mass of kicks to the head, repeated punches to the head and a repeated stamping to the head.”

Field recorded rambling voice notes during the attack, which included the ‘frail’ voice of Mr Glynn, clearly confused by what was happening to him.

Some of the ordeal was recorded by Field on a blink camera, which has never been recovered, but clips downloaded to his phone were viewed during the trial.

Field managed to phone his drug dealer, a man called ‘North’, during the attack, and collected cannabis from him late at night.

Field blackmailed Mr Glynn for years before the attack, taking £200 in cash off him every time they saw one another. The jury also heard that there were multiple cash transfers made from his bank account to Field’s account, totalling many thousands.

Mr Langdale said: “Sitting in the background to the attack was a longstanding imbalance in the the relationship."

As this was outlined in court, Field stood and tried to leave, saying ‘I’m not listening to this.’

On the second day of the attack, Field made a number of half-hearted attempts to phone the emergency services for help, but by the time the ambulance arrived, Mr Glynn was lying on the bathroom floor, soaked, and wearing a dressing gown, which the judge said was an attempt to create a false narrative that a fall in the shower had caused his injuries.

‘Martin was my only friend’

In police interview, Mr Langdale said that Field deliberately ‘weaved a web of lies’ to minimise what he had done.

But before he lost his ability to speak, Mr Glynn had managed to tell a police officer about the attack, saying that Field had ‘put his hands around my neck and squeezed’.

Mr Langdale said: “Samuel (said he) was out to kill him, and Mr Glynn thought he was going to die.”

Medical evidence at trial showed Mr Glynn’s hyoid bone was broken on both sides of his neck.

Field, 40, wore a black jumper and trousers and represented himself at this morning’s hearing. Members of Mr Glynn’s family watched the sentencing hearing via video link and a jury member returned to see the events unfold.

Field provided his own mitigation in the absence of legal representation, which he told the court he had not managed to arrange in the three weeks since the verdict.

He told the court: “Martin was my only friend. Like family to me.”

He denied blackmailing him and said there was ‘nobody forcing him’ to come and see him in prison.

He claimed that Mr Glynn had given him money for food as ‘all his money was going on bills’ and said he would batch cook for him when he visited every Thursday.

Claim he ‘didn’t intend to kill him’

Field continued to put forward his delusional theory that people were coming in and out of his flat using a key provided by Mr Glynn, citing a broken lampshade as evidence.

He said he had been truthful with police and admitted hitting Mr Glynn ‘four times’.

He claimed that blood around the flat had come from a burst blood blister behind Mr Glynn’s ear.

“I never intended to kill Martin,” he said.

"I honestly believe he died of natural causes. It’s stated clearly in the post-mortem he had that he had pneumonia.

"I am at a great loss at losing my closest friend. It’s extremely difficult to be in a situation where I am told I murdered him.

"It just doesn’t add up to me.

"He was a very close and dear friend and I do admit to what I have done and I did assault him.”

‘Self pity’

In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Eyre said to Field: “Martin Glynn was a caring and generous man and he had befriended you.

“What is more, he stood by you after you went to prison in 2009.

"He stood by you when others, wisely, had kept their distance.”

Mr Justice Eyre said that probation officers believed that Field may have attacked two children in 2009 because he believed their mothers were having affairs.

"The author of the (probation) report indicates that it is possible that you caused that harm deliberately as a way of getting revenge on your partners by injuring their children.

"Whatever the true explanation is: there is no doubt that those offences show that you are prepared to use violence towards those who are vulnerable and at your mercy. You are prepared to do so deliberately and with the intention to cause serious harm.”

Mr Justice Eyre said that Field was offered help from probation with the breakdown of a relationship in mid-2024, but didn’t engage with it.

He said: “Instead of engaging fully with the help being offered you chose to indulge in your anger and self-pity and to consume cannabis. That cannabis consumption affected your mood and your mental health.

"You must have known that by turning away from help and by taking cannabis you were making yourself worse. You must have known you were getting into a state where you were a danger to others.”

He said Field had got into that ‘paranoid’ state by his own ‘actions and self-indulgence.’

The judge said that Field had moved Martin Glynn, after the attack, into the shower, to set up a ‘false defence’ that he had fallen.

"Your attempts to cover up your actions show that you knew full well what you had done and had the sense to cover it up,” he said.

"You had the sense to do that but you did not have the courage to summon help for the 93-year-old man lying helpless and badly injured on the floor of your flat.”

He said that he accepted Field had not intended to kill Mr Glynn but rather had attempted to ‘terrify’ him and cause him serious harm.

IPP Sentence

At the time of the murder, Field was on licence after serving an indeterminate sentence for the protection of the public (IPP), imposed for serious assaults he had committed years earlier on two tiny children.

During one of those attacks – both on the children of different partners – he punched a one-year-old baby while he was in his cot, causing retinal bleeding and bruising.

He recently told probation officers that he had carried out those attacks because he believed his partners were having affairs.

Mr Langdale said those attacks had ‘chilling echoes’ of his later assault on Martin Glynn.

He was jailed in 2009 for a minimum term of 31 months, and was deemed fit for release by a parole board in April 2019. He was recalled to prison after failing to tell probation officers about a romantic relationship he had started in 2020, but was released again in 2021.

Field was being supervised by probation officer and a personal wellbeing officer at the time of the murder, and was in frequent contact with them before and during the attack. They knew of the deterioration in his mental health, caused by his increasing reliance on cannabis.

Field told his personal wellbeing officer that Martin was ‘getting out of the shower’ during one phonecall while Mr Glynn was actually lying prone on the living room floor.

Both officers were concerned, but did not phone police, despite Field’s history of assaults on vulnerable victims and their knowledge of his precarious mental state and drug use.

Mr Langdale said at today’s hearing: “A probation officer and a personal wellbeing advisor continued to express concerns and attempted to offer support. Nevertheless there was no recall at that stage. He was left to remain in the community.

"He was in regular contact supposedly with probation, but nevertheless he went on to commit these offences. He was blackmailing Mr Glynn without any action being taken.”

‘Mattie’

In a joint moving victim impact statement submitted to the court, Mr Glynn’s family paid tribute to the man they called ‘Mattie’.

They said: "Martin - or "Mattie" as he was known to those who loved him - was a quiet, soft-spoken man, very independent and private.

"He lived a quiet, simple life and attended church regularly. His faith was very important to him. He was very caring and was totally inoffensive and an absolute gentleman. He had a great sense of humour and a great interest in his extended family.

"Martin loved his trips home to Ireland and enjoyed spending time with family. He was a very gracious man -kind and generous to his family, who very much looked forward to his visits.

"He visited Galway regularly before his beloved sister passed away. We maintained that bond with Martin - visiting him regularly in Northampton.

"The impact of losing Martin has been very distressing for our family. Such evil bestowed on such a kind, gentle, caring, loving, giving, good humoured, inoffensive soul. It was very upsetting to hear he suffered so much.

"We wanted to share with you all today what a lovely man Mattie was, our fond memories of times spent together in Galway and Northampton, and the cruelty of him being taken away from our family in these circumstances."

The court was told that, alongside convictions for GBH and actual bodily harm on the young children, Field also had convictions for burglary in June 2006, common assault in March 2009 and battery in May 2009. In August 2025 he admitted the harassment of his own brother, which took place in the months leading up to the attack.

‘Best friends’

Following the sentence, Deputy Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Sergeant Megan Scotney of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit said:

"My deepest condolences continue to be given to the family of Martin Glynn who have been left truly devastated by his murder.

"Mr Glynn was a kind, gentle, loyal man, who was stripped of his independence by the cruel and calculated actions of Samuel Field, who by his own admission described the pair as being best friends for nearly 20 years.

"Although no sentence will ever be long enough nor can undo the unimaginable suffering Mr Glynn endured inside Field's flat, I hope today's sentence will offer some closure to what has been a very distressing and upsetting time for Mr Glynn's family.

"I would like to take this opportunity to pass on my sincerest thanks to Mr Glynn's family for their support and patience during this investigation at what has been a very difficult time for

"Finally, I would also like to thank those officers and staff from both Northamptonshire Police whose hard work and commitment throughout this complex investigation helped to obtain the evidence we needed to get justice for Mr Glynn and his family.”