British farmer loses fight for early release

Tony Martin, jailed for five years for the 1999 killing a teenage burglar on his English orchard farm, lost his High Court battle…

Tony Martin, jailed for five years for the 1999 killing a teenage burglar on his English orchard farm, lost his High Court battle today for early release from prison.

Justice Maurice Kay rejected an application for a court order forcing the Parole Board to reconsider the case of Martin (59), whose original manslaughter trial triggered a national debate about "burglars' rights".

Justice Kay agreed that an initial error of law was made when Martin's application was first considered, but he ruled that it had been corrected, and thus there were no grounds for allowing the challenge.

The Parole Board had turned down Martin's plea to be set free in January and refused to review its decision a month later, even though it had received new psychiatric reports.

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Probation officers said there was an "unacceptable risk" that Martin might again react with excessive force if other would-be burglars intruded on his Bleak House farm in Norfolk, in the east of England.

It was at remote Bleak House that Martin, then 54, shot and killed 16-year-old burglar Fred Barras with an illegally-owned shotgun in August 1999. The burglar's accomplice was wounded in the leg.

At his trial, which opened in April 2000, Martin argued that he had genuinely been acting in self-defence. But others testified that the young burglars had been shot as they were trying to flee through a window.

Despite his setback, Martin is due to leave prison on July 28th after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

AFP