Anthony Edward Martin (born 1944) is a farmer from Norfolk, England, who in 1999 killed one burglar and wounded another who had both entered his home. He was convicted of murder, replaced with manslaughter on appeal, and as a result became a cause célèbre, and polarised opinion in the UK.
In 1999 Martin was living in an isolated farmhouse in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk, nicknamed Bleak House. He claimed to have been burgled a total of ten times, losing £6,000 worth of furniture. Martin also complained about police inaction over the burglaries. The police reports state that multiple items and furniture were stolen such as dinner ware and a grandfather clock. The neighbours also had police reports of robbers, some believing they were the ones Martin later shot at.
On the night of 20 August 1999, two burglars — Brendon Fearon, 29, and Fred Barras, 16 — entered Bleak House. When confronted, they attempted to flee through a window. Shooting in the dark, with an illegally held pump-action Winchester shotgun, Martin shot Fearon in the leg, and Barras in the back: Barras escaped through the window but died at the scene.
On 10 January 2000, Fearon and Darren Bark, 33 (who had acted as the get-away driver), both from Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, admitted to conspiring to burgle Martin's farmhouse. Fearon was sentenced to three years in prison, and Bark to 30 months (with an additional 12 months arising from previous offences). Fearon was released on 10 August 2001.
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".
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. He was sentenced to life in prison, the mandatory sentence for murder under English law.
An appeal was considered in October 2001 by three senior judges headed by Lord Woolf, LCJ. Submissions by the defence that Martin had fired in self defence were rejected by the appeal court. However, on this occasion the defence submitted evidence that Martin suffered paranoid personality disorder specifically directed at anyone intruding into his home. 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 imprisoned in Highpoint Prison, Suffolk. When he became eligible for parole and early release in January 2003, the Parole Board rejected his application without stating a reason. The chairman of the parole board, Sir David Hatch, in an interview with The Times described Martin as "a very dangerous man" who may 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.
During 2003, Fearon applied for, and received, an estimated £5,000 of legal aid to sue Martin for loss of earnings due to the injuries he had sustained. 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 jail after being charged with the theft of a vehicle while on probation on a conviction for dealing heroin. Fearon later dropped the case when Martin agreed to drop a counter-claim. Tens of thousands of pounds of public money had been spent on the case.
It has been claimed that Fearon's supporters have put a bounty on Martin's head of several tens of thousands of pounds. In 2003 it was claimed that Martin had sold his version of the story to the Daily Mirror for a reputed sum of £125,000.
Since his release Martin has appeared on the platform of the United Kingdom Independence Party
and has endorsed the [[British National Party]]. Both parties have advocated changes in the law to stop prosecutions of people defending themselves from intruders, as well as less restrictive firearm controls.
