Tony Martin (farmer)

Anthony Edward Martin (16 December 1944 – 2 February 2025) was an English farmer who shot two burglars in his home on 20 August 1999. One burglar died at the scene and the other escaped injured. There was sympathy for Martin from people who supported the right to defend their own homes, but prosecutors cast doubt on his evidence and pointed out that he did not have a valid firearms certificate. He was convicted of murder, which was later reduced to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility, and served three years in prison after being denied parole.

Early life

Martin was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire on 16 December 1944. Part of a prosperous farming family, he attended private schools in Norfolk and Oxfordshire. At school, although a successful sportsman, he was not academically gifted. Aged 17, he left school and started travelling, working on Australian farms and as a steward on ocean liners. He also worked on Scottish oil rigs, but eventually returned to the family farm to run a piggery. In 1979 he inherited Bleak House, a Victorian property near Emneth Hungate, from an aunt and uncle.

Burglary and shooting

Martin lived alone at his farmhouse, Bleak House, in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk. He claimed that he had been burgled 10 times over the years, losing £6,000 worth of furniture, though police stated they were unsure whether all of the incidents actually occurred. He also complained about police inaction over the burglaries and claimed that multiple items and furniture were stolen, including dinnerware and a grandfather clock.

Changes in legislation in 1988, resulting from the Hungerford massacre, had changed the licensing treatment of semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns with a magazine capacity of more than two to equate to that of a firearm, requiring a valid firearms certificate. Martin had his shotgun certificate revoked in 1994 after he found a man stealing apples in his orchard and shot a hole in the back of his vehicle.

Twenty-nine-year-old Brendon Fearon and 16-year-old Fred Barras, burglars from Newark-on-Trent, broke into Martin's house on the evening of 20 August 1999. Shooting downwards in the dark with his shotgun loaded with birdshot, Martin shot three times towards the intruders, once when they were in the stairwell and twice more when they were trying to flee through the window of an adjacent ground floor room. Barras was hit in the back and both sustained gunshot injuries to their legs. Both escaped through the window but Barras died at the scene.

On 10 January 2000, Fearon and 33-year-old Darren Bark (who had acted as the getaway driver), also from Newark-on-Trent, admitted to conspiring to burgle Martin's farmhouse. Fearon was sentenced to three years in prison, and Bark to two and a half years He had been sentenced to two months in a young offenders' institution for assaulting a police officer, theft and being drunk and disorderly. On the night he was killed, Barras had just been released on bail after being accused of stealing garden furniture. His grandmother, Mary Dolan, said: "It's not fair that the farmer has got all the money and he is the one that took Fred away."

Murder trial

On 23 August 1999, Martin was charged with the murder of Barras, the attempted murder of Fearon, "wounding with intent to cause injury" to Fearon and "possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life".

English law at the time permitted a person to kill another in self-defence only if the person defending themself uses no more than "reasonable force"; it is the responsibility of the jury to determine whether or not an unreasonable amount of force was used. The jury at the trial were told that they had the option of returning a verdict of manslaughter rather than murder, if they thought that Martin "did not intend to kill or cause serious bodily harm". However, the jurors found Martin guilty of murder by a 10 to 2 majority.

Martin was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommended minimum term to serve of nine years, soon afterwards reduced to eight years by the Lord Chief Justice.

Appeal

Martin was told he would have to sell his farm to pay for an appeal against his convictions. He did not qualify for legal aid because he owned his house and hundreds of acres of land attached to it. and that his paranoia was specifically directed at anyone intruding into his home; he was also diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. This submission was accepted by the Court of Appeal and, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, Martin's murder conviction was replaced by manslaughter carrying a five-year sentence, and his ten-year sentence for wounding Fearon was reduced to three years. These sentences were to run concurrently. Martin was refused permission to appeal the new sentence to the House of Lords. In an interview with The Times, parole board chairman Sir David Hatch described Martin as "a very dangerous man" who might still believe his action had been right.

Martin challenged the decision in the High Court, where the parole board's decision was upheld. Probation officers on Martin's cases said there was an "unacceptable risk" that Martin might again react with excessive force if other would-be burglars intruded on his Norfolk farm. On 28 July 2003, Martin was released after serving three years of his five-year sentence, the maximum period for which he could be held following good behaviour. However, the case was thrown into doubt when photographs were published in The Sun, showing him "cycling and climbing with little apparent difficulty" suggesting that Fearon's injuries were not as serious as had been claimed. While the case was pending, Fearon was recalled to gaol after being charged with the theft of a vehicle while on probation following a conviction for dealing heroin. Fearon later dropped the case when Martin agreed to drop a counterclaim.

Nick Makin, Martin's solicitor, said: "It is appalling that the family of someone who has a criminal record for burglary and assault should attempt to claim any damages of criminal injury when he was shot while burgling the dwelling of an innocent person ... It is also appalling that they may get legal aid while his victim is in prison and patently unable to work and equally cannot get legal aid ... There is something wrong and perverse with our legal system that it permits this." In October, the Daily Mirror paid Martin £125,000 for an exclusive interview on his release from prison. After investigation, the Press Complaints Commission ruled that the payment was justified and in the public interest because Martin "had a unique insight into an issue of great public concern".

Following his release, Martin made public appearances as a supporter of the right-wing populist UK Independence Party and was the guest of honour at the Annual Dinner hosted at Simpson's-in-the-Strand by the far-right pressure group Traditional Britain Group in November 2003. He also attended meetings of the far-right, fascist political party National Front in Norfolk, and later went on to endorse the far-right and fascist British National Party. One of Martin's uncles by marriage, Andrew Fountaine, was a founding member of the National Front. When Martin's probate was proved in February 2026, the value of his estate was given at £2,567,795, accredited to inheritance and his frugal lifestyle. Martin left the entirety of his estate to Jacqueline Wadley, the landlady of a Wisbech pub, and her husband, with whom he had developed a close friendship following his release from prison in 2003. In May 2026, part of Martin's farm was offered for sale in separate plots for £1.378m total. Offers were invited for Bleak House, site of the 1999 shooting.

Books and television

Martin, T. (with John McVicar – editor) (2004), A Right to Kill? : Tony Martin's Story, Artnik, , .
Saunders, J. (2001), Tony Martin and the Bleak House Tragedy, True Crime Library/Forum Press, , .
Turney, B. (2005), Wanted, Waterside Press, , .
The Interrogation of Tony Martin, a television film based partly on transcripts of police interviews of Martin. It was directed by Dave Nath and Martin was played by Steve Pemberton. It was broadcast on Channel 4 in November 2018.

References

Notes

External links

"Tony Martin, farmer whose shooting of a teenage burglar sparked national soul-searching" - obituary at telegraph.co.uk/
Robert Vanderbeck (2003) An analysis of media coverage of the Tony Martin affair, with particular attention to representations of Roma and Irish Travellers.