The London Evening Standard
A farmer who became a household name after he was jailed for shooting dead a burglar at his home today revealed he had confronted another intruder.
Tony Martin, 67, who was jailed for killing teenager Fred Barras in 1999, said he caught a burglar in the act near an outbuilding at his property in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, yesterday.
He said he confronted the would-be thief who drove off, but decided against trying to stop him, adding: “I couldn’t face going through all that again.”
He told Sky News: “There were weapons inside the shed so, if I had wanted to fight him off, I could have.
“I wished I had but, after everything I’ve been through in the past, I just couldn’t face all that hassle again.
“It isn’t the first time it’s happened since I’ve been out of prison - it’s happened two or three times.
“I haven’t changed my views about what happened in 1999 but the whole experience has made me lose faith in the system and I didn’t want to be made out as the criminal again.”
The gun-rights fanatics love to blow this one up into something more than it is. What's missing in the UK is the presumption that anyone breaking into your house is demonstrating lethal threat by the very fact of breaking in.
The Castle Doctrine in its many forms is based on the worst possible case. A burglar COULD intend to kill or harm therefore all burglars are eligible for immediate execution. Taken on a case by case basis, as with Mr. Martin in 1999, it's obvious that lethal threat is often not operative.
It's telling that in the case Mr. Martin is lamenting about, he was able to chase the burglar away without killing him.
If he wants to be able to kill people on the slightest pretext and get away with it, he should move to Georgia in the US.
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