Farmer Tony Martin who shot and killed a teenage burglar at his house has died at the age of 80.
The convicted killer was imprisoned in 2000 for the murder of 16-year-old Fred Barras and the injury of 29-year-old Brendon Fearon after they broke into his Norfolk residence.
Defending his actions, Martin confronted the intruders in August 1999 with a pump-action shotgun, resulting in the death of Barras.
He was jailed for murder but released three years later after the conviction was reduced to manslaughter.
Since then, the pensioner has said he ‘doesn’t regret anything’.
Reflecting on the incident, Martin expressed his belief that his actions were justified and that he has faced little criticism for his response.
‘I would like to appeal but you can’t because you need fresh evidence. My idea of fresh evidence and their idea [of it] are different.
‘I’d love to clear my name before I die but it may never happen. The law won’t allow it.’
The farmer’s death was confirmed today by a family friend, who said he passed away on Sunday afternoon having suffered a stroke a few months ago.Â
Tony Martin outside his farmhouse Bleak House, in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk, shortly after his release from prison in August 2003
Friend Malcolm Starr said the pensioner ‘deserves a light up on him’, adding that he initially found him to be ‘very eccentric’.
He said: ‘I think his honesty got him incarcerated because he couldn’t lie.
‘Because if you go in that situation, you do everything you could probably to get out of it and say, this happened and they attacked me or something like that.
‘But what I’m saying is he’s really a very straight guy from that point of view.’
Mr Starr, who handled Mr Martin’s relations with the media, added: ‘I still maintain, how do you know how anyone would react until you’re faced with it?
‘I don’t think you can predict how you’d act if someone came into your property.’
Mr Starr said his friend tried ‘to carry on as normal’ after his release from prison.
‘He tried to carry on as normal, whatever normal was to Tony. I think most of the farm, he sub-contracted,’ he said.Â
‘He didn’t do much of that himself, but he just liked meeting people.’
Martin shot dead burglar Fred Barras (pictured), 16, at his farm Bleak House in Emneth Hungate near Emneth, Norfolk, in 1999
Mr Martin was convicted of murdering Mr Barras in 2000 but the case hit headlines again just a year later when the verdict was overturned on appeal. Following this, Mr Martin was sentenced to three years in jail for manslaughter. Â
The pensioner inherited the £3million Bleak House Farm in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk, on the death of aunt 40 years ago. Â
Barras and Fearon raided Mr Martin’s property on August 20, 1999, with the pair travelling from Newark, Nottinghamshire.
But on hearing the break-in, Mr Martin came downstairs from an upstairs bedroom and opened fire with a pump-action shotgun.
After the shooting, an injured Mr Fearon crawled to a nearby house for help.
Mr Barras was found dead in undergrowth surrounding Mr Martin’s property – where the farmer stored antiques – the following day.
When asked after his released from jail, Mr Martin always insisted those who broke into other people’s properties deserved all they got.
Speaking in 2019, he said: ‘What happened to me is important to every man, woman and child in this country – not just to me.
Interviewed 20 years on from what he referred to as ‘that fateful night’, he insisted he did not ‘have to excuse myself for anything’, adding that he believes he should have been treated as the victim, not the criminal.
At his trial, prosecutors claimed Martin had booby-trapped his home and armed himself with an illegal weapon
He said: ‘I’ve always said when people get into exceptional circumstances which are beyond the norm, the law should leave you alone. You should be protected in law against these things.’
Mr Martin said he had followed with interest the case of Richard Osborn-Brooks, who killed an armed burglar with a kitchen knife, but faced no charges. A coroner later recorded a verdict of lawful killing.
Mr Osborn-Brooks, 79, stabbed Henry Vincent, 37, with a knife in Hither Green, south-east London, in April 2018.
He said Vincent threatened him with a screwdriver, then ‘rushed forward’ and ‘ran into the knife I was holding’.
Mr Martin said: ‘Every case is different but some people are of the opinion that, personally, he didn’t do anything wrong.
‘He didn’t go to bed that night to end up killing somebody. It happened because these things do happen.’
At his trial, prosecutors claimed Mr Martin had anticipated the burglary and lain in wait – but he claimed to have been acting in self-defence.
He was initially convicted of murder and jailed for life in April 2000, with 10 years to run concurrently for a wounding offence and a further 12 months for possession of an illegal firearm.
But the charge was later downgraded to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility, after Mr Martin was diagnosed with paranoid personality disorder, and he was released in 2003.
A decade later in 2013, the law was changed with the Crime ans Courts Act providing a ‘householder’s defence’ if they used ‘reasonable’ force against an intruder that was not ‘grossly disproportionate’.
In another interview in 2023, Mr Martin gave his recollections of the shooting incident at his £3 million farm, which he still owned.
He said: ‘I went to bed that night with the Farmers Weekly and a bottle of wine. I had the radio on.
‘Suddenly, the house was broken into and my life changed. Does that make me a guilty man?
‘Can you imagine it? It was a terrifying experience. You go home one night and someone breaks into your house and you get the police jumping on [your] back.
‘I’ve had to live with that for more than 20 years. Suddenly, I’m this man that wants to kill people.
‘I don’t regret anything – what was I supposed to do? Hide under the bed clothes?
‘Before I knew where I was, I was locked up by the police. It’s unlucky that I was the fall guy.’Â
