Farmer who shot dead a burglar is arrested again over ‘illegal gun’
FARMER Tony Martin, who shot dead a teenage burglar in 1999, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of having an illegal gun.
Martin, 71, killed 16-year-old Fred Barras with an unlicensed shotgun and was jailed for life at Norwich Crown Court in April 2000.
But on appeal, his murder conviction was changed to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility as it was revealed he had a paranoid personality disorder.
His prison term was reduced to five years and he was freed in 2003 after serving half the sentence.
Martin was yesterday being questioned in police custody while officers searched his isolated 300acre farm at Emneth Hungate, near Downham Market, Norfolk.
Two officers stood guard at the farm as others searched buildings and surrounding land, which is littered with rusting equipment.
Martin was arrested in nearby Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, in what police called a ‘planned operation’.
He shot dead Barras, who was from a traveller family, and wounded an accomplice Brendon Fearon, 29, when he caught them breaking into his farmhouse in August 1999.
The case provoked debate about the measures homeowners can take to defend their property.
It is thought Martin, who is known for his eccentric behaviour, never returned to live in his derelict farm after his release from jail. He is believed to have spent 13 years sleeping in his car or at friends’ homes.
Much of his land is tended by contractors and he gets an income from government agricultural grants.
A Norfolk Police spokesman said: ‘As part of a planned operation, a 71year-old man has been arrested in Wisbech this morning on suspicion of possession of an illegal firearm.
‘He remains in police custody. A police search of a property in Emneth Hungate is currently being undermy taken.’ The spokesman refused to say whether or not a weapon had been seized by officers.
He, added: ‘The search is ongoing. We would not comment on the outcome until the search has been concluded.’
Martin said in an interview in 2009 he had ‘no regrets’ about the shooting, adding: ‘Why should I be bloody remorseful?
‘Those people had no business being here. They were just putrescence.
‘I have got no regrets. Why should I be responsible for the actions of other people?
‘I happened to be asleep in my house when these people broke in and I shot them unwittingly.
‘I didn’t have a clue what I was shooting at.
‘The police said it could have been mother. That’s the kind of stupidity I am up against.’
He added: ‘If I’d known then that I’d be convicted of laying in wait for burglars and shooting to kill them, then if I could turn back the clock, I’d have taken them both out for good. Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.’
He said of Fearon: ‘He was looking anaemic, so I gave him a dose of lead.’
Martin refused to speak of his living arrangements in the interview, saying: ‘It is nobody’s business. Even the police don’t know where I am. The truth is I stay where I happen to be at the time.’
In 2012, Martin threatened to chop up any burglars he found on his land, saying: ‘It is quite simple. I have got a chainsaw. I’d let it run and I would show it to him. If he decided he was going to have me, I would let him have it.’
And in May 2013 Martin said he was seeking help for mental health issues. He had claimed that he had confronted another thief on his property trying to steal a pair of £90 tractor batteries, but later said the incident was ‘surreal’ and might not have happened.
‘I gave him a dose of lead’