How far should you go to protect yourself?
should the victims of burglary be arrested for defending themselves?
The case has stayed in British memory...
Tony Martin had lived alone at his Bleak House farm in Norfolk, since he’d inherited the land from his uncle in 1980.
So he was startled when he heard noises coming from inside his home late at night on 20 August 1999.
The 54-year-old farmer discovered two young men ransacking his property, and fired shots with his illegally-owned shotgun.
Brendon Fearon, 29, was hit in the legs. Other shots hit 16-year-old Fred Barras in the leg and in the back, killing him.
In April 2000, Martin was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
But the case caused intense debate over how far burglary victims should be allowed to go to defend themselves. Many rushed to support Martin, arguing that, as an older man living alone in the countryside, he must’ve been afraid when he realised his home had been broken into.
Others added that, on finding an intruder in your home, you can’t be sure of their intentions.
Whether they’re simply stealing, or out to cause harm.
Sympathy for Barras was scarce. While some argued the fact he’d been shot in the back suggested he was running away, many others were more scathing, insisting the burglars simply got what they deserved.
Public support for Martin, who had Asperger’s syndrome and a paranoid personality disorder, was so strong that donations poured into a defence fund set up in his name.
Eventually, his murder conviction was reduced to manslaughter and his sentence to five years. After serving three years, Martin was released from jail in July 2003.
Though the case focussed attention on laws concerning the rights of burglary victims, incidents like this have continued to happen.
In August 2003, 23-year-old Brett Osborn killed a stranger who’d forced his way into the house where he was watching telly with his friends.
High on cocaine, Wayne Halling, 30, had been smashing windows of other houses and attacked one of Osborn’s friends, who’d gone out to see what the commotion was.
Chasing her back inside, Halling barged through the door and got into a struggle with another of Osborn’s mates.
When Halling ran at him, Osborn stabbed him with a 6in serrated steak knife.
‘I didn’t know what he was going to do to me,’ Osborn later told the police.
He was faced with a frenzied,
Between March 2016 and 2017, two in 100 households were victims of domestic burglary
aggressive man covered in his own blood from his wounds from smashing windows, and knowing another woman in the house was pregnant, he acted.
‘The only thing I could think of was to protect myself and the other people in the house,’ Osborn added.
Still, he was prosecuted for murder, which carried a life sentence on a guilty verdict.
Not wanting to risk life imprisonment, Osborn pleaded guilty to manslaughter through provocation and was sentenced to five years in April 2004.
‘A man behaving like a lunatic, covered in blood, is coming towards him, and my son is supposed to calmly warn him that he might be stabbed if he attacks?’ raged Osborn’s mum afterwards.
As the cases piled up, the Government reviewed the law and ensured greater protection for burglary victims in 2013.
The law had previously stated that victims could use ‘reasonable force’ to defend themselves and their families, meaning they could act based on what they felt was necessary in the heat of the moment.
The law now also allows the use of ‘disproportionate force’.
If a victim uses a degree of force that exceeds the level of threat, they will be given the benefit of the doubt, as long as they believed their actions to be reasonable at the time.
But this hasn’t stopped burglary victims from facing legal problems while defending themselves or their property.
In December 2016, Carl Sinclair was arrested for assault after punching a burglar who’d been trying to steal his car while his wife and children were asleep inside the house.
A jury cleared him of any wrongdoing in just half an hour, but Sinclair told reporters he’d faced
11 months of hell leading up to his day in court.
Sinclair, 47, lost his job as a railway safety manager because of the stress of being faced with serious jail time.
He was also frightened that his family wouldn’t be able to pay their mortgage and would lose their home if he was jailed.
Another incident that sparked outrage was the case of 78-year-old Richard Osborn-brooks earlier this year.
In April, Henry Vincent and an alleged accomplice broke into the south-east London home that Richard shared with his wife, who suffered severe arthritis, and threatened him with a screwdriver.
In the ensuing struggle, Vincent was stabbed to death, and Richard was later arrested on suspicion of murder. Arguing that Vincent might still be alive if he hadn’t chosen to commit burglary, friends and neighbours rallied around Richard. ‘He has every right to protect his property. He deserves a medal,’ said one. ‘He doesn’t deserve to be punished for defending himself,’ insisted another. Richard was eventually released without charge, but the pensioner and his wife had to leave their home of more than 20 years and relocate under police protection. Tensions remained high in the community. While Vincent’s friends and family left flowers and tributes at a shrine near Richard’s home, furious neighbours repeatedly tore them down, arguing that the tributes were disrespectful. The law does now offer more protection to burglary victims who have attacked or killed while trying to defend themselves and their loved ones.
But these cases still need to be reviewed by the police – and actually having to justify their actions can put burglary victims through more mental and emotional turmoil.