Farmer who shot burglar dead is freed

BRITISH farmer Tony Martin was last night enjoying his first taste of freedom for nearly four years and looking forward to pocketing an estimated 140,000 after selling his story.

Martin, 58, was freed on licence after serving two thirds of a five-year sentence for the manslaughter of 16-year-old burglar Fred Barras.

He was held at a safe house over the weekend after being moved from Highpoint prison in Suffolk last week for security reasons.

Martin spent some of his first day of freedom with representatives of the Daily Mirror newspaper. His MP, Conservative Henry Bellingham, accepted that some might be critical of the farmer’s decision to profit from his crime by selling his story.

But he said Martin had thought long and hard about the move and needed money to pay huge legal bills and to fund improvements to his dilapidated farmhouse at Emneth Hungate, Norfolk.

Mirror editor Piers Morgan said Martin’s case “raises a number of significant public interest issues relating to crime in this country, and in particular the way that victims now appear to receive less rights than the criminals who prey on them.

“Mr Martin has a lot to say about what has happened to him, and his dramatic account of the events surrounding his case should lead to several fundamental changes in the law.”

Martin shot dead 16-year-old Fred Barras and wounded 33-year-old Brendan Fearon after confronting them in his home late at night in August 1999.

Ellen Barras, mother of Fred, said: “We just want to leave all this behind us and allow our son to rest in peace.”