“The case will reignite the debate over a householder’s right to defend his property, which began in the late 1990s after the farmer Tony Martin shot two burglars at his remote Norfolk home. In 1999, Martin fired at Brendan Fearon, 29, and Fred Barras, 16, after they broke into the house in Emneth Hungate.
Three shots were fired, Barras was hit in the back and despite escaping through a window died moments later. Martin was convicted of murder and jailed for life, which was reduced on appeal to manslaughter and five years’ jail.
In 2009, the millionaire businessman Munir Hussain fought back with a metal pole and a cricket bat against a knife-wielding burglar who tied up his family at their home in Buckinghamshire. Hussain was jailed for two and a half years, despite his attacker being spared prison.
Appeal judges reduced the sentence to a year’s jail, suspended. “
Lovely!
Innovative was a faster poster than I, BUT I have more detail (#32) [grin]! It was/is a case that we here in the former Colonies, would regard as a total miscarriage of justice, yet it happened!
The ‘problem’ with Tony Martin was that he shot the scumbags in the back at a distance as they were running away from his house, so the court deemed that that didnt come under the British definition of reasonable force. Had he simply shot them in the house, he’d never have been charged. Also the fact the gun was illegally owned by him didnt help.
IMO, if he had to be charged, he should have received a suspended sentence. In other words, a technical crime, but sensibly no jail time.