From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] JAILED FARMER SHOULD SERVE EIGHT YEARS, SAYS TOP JUDGE 270251 JUL 00 By James Lyons, Home Affairs Correspondent, PA News Britain's top judge believes farmer Tony Martin should serve a minimum of eight years for shooting dead a teenage burglar, it was claimed today. Trial judge Mr Justice Owen, who jailed Martin for life for the murder of Fred Barras, has recommended a nine-year minimum, or tariff, according to ITV's Tonight with Trevor McDonald. But the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, believes "mitigating circumstances" mean that he should be considered for release in eight years time, the show's makers say. Martin, who was recently moved to Gartree high security jail in Leicestershire, is currently appealing against his conviction at Norwich Crown Court. Jurors found him guilty of murder by a 10-2 majority after hearing how he shot 16-year-old Barras, one of a team of burglars raiding his remote and ramshackle farmhouse in Emneth Hungate, near Emneth, Norfolk. The programme will say Mr Justice Owen made his nine-year recommendation in a report to Home Secretary Jack Straw, who will set the final tariff. However, the copy sent to Mr Straw contained hand-written notes on the case from the Lord Chief Justice, the programme will report. According to its producers, Lord Woolf wrote: "I note he initially considered fixing the tariff figure at eight years and, on the facts described, that is the figure I would have selected, rather than the nine years on which the judge decided." A spokesman for Lord Woolf declined to comment on the reports but admitted he was "concerned" about how the programme had obtained the document. The show, screened tonight at 10pm on ITV, will also include a telephone interview Martin has given from prison. In a memo leaked last week Prime Minister Tony Blair said Ministers' response to the case had made the Government seem out of touch with the public. His comment echoed Mr Justice Owen's report, obtained by the programme, which talks about public sympathy for Martin, who has had a �60,000 contract placed on his life since the killing. "Understandably there has been considerable sympathy for Martin, who was a man without convictions, whose home was broken into, and had it not been for the burglars he would not have committed his crimes," the judge apparently wrote. "However, much of that sympathy is based on very inadequate accounts of the evidence. I believe the burglars did not know Martin was there until the very last moment. "They were given no chance to escape and Martin was not acting in reasonable self defence. He fired intending really serious injury and certainly risked the lives of each of the burglars." Mr Justice Owen concludes: "He is never likely to re-offend but he deserves punishment." Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
