Tony Martin, ‘eccentric’ farmer who killed teenage burglar, dies

Tony Martin, who sparked national debate when he shot dead a teenager on his farm, has died at the age of 80.

Growing up on a wealthy family’s farm in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, ‘there were always guns’ around, his mother Hilary said in 2000.

‘His father loved shooting and was a good shot. But Tony never really liked shooting. He didn’t really like to idea of killing.’

On August 20, 1999, Mr Martin fired his shotgun three times from the stairs, killing 16-year-old burglar Fred Barras, and injuring his accomplice Brendon Fearon, then 29, as they broke into his Norfolk farmhouse.

The night before, Barras had been bragging to his friends in Newark, Nottinghamshire, that he was going off to do his first ‘big job’.

He had ‘got in with the wrong people’, according his mother Ellen, who had bought him chicken and chips for dinner that evening.

‘I don’t think I shall ever be happy again’, she later said.

The shooting at Bleak House was controversial, sparking national debate over whether it was the pre-meditated actions of a violent eccentric, or justified self-defence.

He argued he was protecting himself and his semi-derelict home, where he lived alone surrounded by antiques- and hundreds of acres of land. The prosecution claimed he was lying in wait for the intruding pair.

Originally convicted of murder and jailed for life in April 2000, he was released three years later after the charge was downgraded to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Mr Martin had been diagnosed with paranoid personality disorder.

His mother said: ‘He did not have a violent nature. I have never, ever known him be involved in fights. He was a nice, friendly young man.

‘I think he is the kind of person who would stand up for himself but he was never violent.’

Described as ‘very eccentric’ by his friend Malcolm Starr, Mr Martin appears to have ‘tried to carry on as normal’ after his release.

‘Whatever normal was to Tony’, Starr said. ‘I think most of the farm, he sub-contracted.

‘He didn’t do much of that himself, but he just liked meeting people. He was good on history, he liked history books and that sort of thing.’

In 2013 there was almost a repeat on the 1999 shooting after he saw a man trying to steal car batteries while he visited his shed.

‘There were weapons inside the shed so, if I had wanted to fight him off, I could have’, he said.

‘I wished I had but, after everything I’ve been through in the past, I just couldn’t face all that hassle again.’

Three years later, Mr Martin was arrested on suspicion of possessing an illegal firearm after police searched his home. Police later said he would face no further action.

He died on February 2, after suffering a stroke in December, more than 25 years after killing a boy.

Barras had 29 previous convictions, mostly for theft and fraud, and had been sentenced to two months in a young offender’s institute for assaulting a police officer.

Hours before he was killed, he had been released on bail after being accused of stealing garden furniture.

But his family was convinced ‘he would not have gone on being a thief forever’, and would have been able to contribute to his family with a job, if he was still alive.

Announcing their intention to sue Mr Martin for loss of income in 2000, Barras’ 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.’

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