From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
FARMER FOUND NOT GUILTY OF MURDER ATTEMPT
191248 APR 00
By Rebecca Allison and Damien Brook, PA News
A farmer who opened fire on burglars was today cleared on two charges.
Tony Martin was found not guilty of attempting to murder Brendan Fearon and
cleared of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
The jury was still considering charges against him of murdering Fred Barras,
16, and wounding with intent.
The judge at Norwich Crown Court told the jury he would accept a majority
verdict on the two charges.
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BURGLAR CASE FARMER GUILTY OF MURDER
191537 APR 00
By Rebecca Allison and Damien Brook, PA News
A farmer who opened fire on a gang of burglars, killing one of them, was
today convicted of murder.
Bachelor Tony Martin, 55, was found guilty of murdering 16-year-old Fred
Barras at his isolated Norfolk farmhouse by a majority verdict of 10 to two.
The jury at Norwich Crown Court also found Martin, 55, guilty of wounding
with intent, also by a majority of 10 to two.
There was a huge cry of "yes" as the verdicts were read out.
Earlier the jury unanimously cleared Martin of attempting to murder another
burglar Brendan Fearon and possessing a firearm with intent at his Bleak
House home, Emneth Hungate, near Emneth, Norfolk.
The farmer opened fire after confronting Barras, of Newark, Nottinghamshire,
and 30-year-old Fearon, also of Newark, late at night at his isolated home on
August 20.
He was arrested at Marmion Hotel, Wisbech, the home of his friend Helen
Lilley, the following morning.
The jury of six men and six women took nine hours and thirty six minutes to
return the guilty verdicts.
The farmer had earlier admitted possessing a shotgun without a certificate.
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MARTIN LIVED IN DARK, RAT-INFESTED FARMHOUSE
191538 APR 00
By Brian Farmer, PA News
Tony Martin lived an eccentric lifestyle in an overgrown, rat-infested
Victorian farmhouse that was "booby-trapped" and had a home-made security
system, the court heard.
His only companions were three Rottweiler dogs which had the run of a
derelict cottage near the farmhouse.
Rosamund Horwood-Smart QC, prosecuting, said Martin had rigged up his own
electricity system and lived in near darkness or darkness.
He had two low-level light bulbs - one a 15 watt bulb in a bedroom and
another hanging from a flex in a hall.
"That was the only light in the house," added Miss Horwood-Smart. "Mr Martin
was used to living in this house in darkness or near-darkness."
She said he had also taken security measures and created a "booby-trap" on
his staircase by removing the top and bottom steps.
The jury was shown photographs of the features Miss Horwood-Smart described.
"You can see the booby-trap," she said. "Three steps have been removed at the
top and bottom.
"He also installed iron bars inside his doors and windows on the ground floor.
"He would also sleep entirely clothed wearing his boots in contemplation of
something happening."
The roofs of outbuildings had ladders on them and he had set up a "lookout
post" in a tree which had four long ladders lashed to its branches.
"He lived alone in an almost derelict farmhouse with a number of
outbuildings," said Miss Horwood-Smart.
"The house itself was entirely obscured and could not be seen from the air."
She said the roof of the house was entirely overgrown.
In the garden, vegetation, including clumps of poisonous hogweed grew
gutter-high and trees were growing against the side of the house and
inthrough the roof.
Martin denied that he had booby-trapped the house. He said the stairs were in
a state of disrepair and said he used the ladders for trimming his oak tree
and cleaning a chimney.
Jurors had to wear hard hats when they visited the farmhouse during the trial.
And pictures released by police showed the rubbish strewn around the main
room of the house and revealed the rickety staircase with its steps missing.
At the bottom of the staircase Martin had installed a M-shaped ladder inorder
to negotiate the gap.
At the top Martin told the court he took a "giant leap for mankind" in order
to get over the space.
The photographs show the almost derelict condition of the house, with bare
brickwork on the walls, a collapsed ceiling and rubble and girders strewn
around the floor.
The main living room of Bleak House had no carpet and was cluttered with junk.
In one corner, a plastic Christmas tree lay across the floor, there wasalso a
cooker on the floor plus tools and boxes scattered around.
The window frame wrenched out by burglar Brendan Fearon could also be seen
lying on the floor.
Martin told the court that he hardly ever allowed anyone in the house, which
had no cooking facilities, and ate many of his meals at a friend's hotel in
Wisbech.
Detective Chief Inspector Martin Wright, who led the investigation into the
shooting, said many officers had never seen a house like Martin's.
"It was rat-infested on the inside and completely overgrown on the outside,"
he said.
"It was in a very dilapidated state, particularly the downstairs. There was
lack of electricity, cobwebs and certainly things that come tomy memory are
sizeable numbers of empty sardine cans on the floor. I've never seen anything
like it before."
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FARMER MISBEHAVED WITH GUNS FOR 20 YEARS
191550 APR 00
By Brian Farmer, PA News
Jurors were not told that Tony Martin had a history of misbehaviour with guns
dating back more than 20 years.
Neither did they know that police found a sawn-off shotgun hidden in Martin's
garage.
Martin pleaded not guilty to possessing the shortened gun and ammunition at a
crown court hearing earlier this year. The jury was not told of that charge.
At a hearing before magistrates in Norwich in September, prosecution
solicitor Nicholas Crampton outlined a number of incidents in which Martin
had "misbehaved" with guns.
In June 1976, Martin shot a pigeon with a First World War revolver in an
incident which developed at a house after he became "distressed".
In December 1987, Martin had gone to the home of his brother, Robin, at
Wisbech St Mary, near Emneth, and, after an argument over property, used a
shotgun to smash windows. Robin subsequently moved abroad.
Mr Crampton also told how police had found the sawn-off shotgun while
carrying out a search following the shooting of the two burglars in August.
Jurors were told how Martin had fired a shot at a car six years ago - an
incident which led to his shotgun certificate being revoked.
The court heard that he had found a man named Mark Aldin on his land.
Martin thought the man was stealing apples and "casing" his farm.
When Aldin refused to leave and became abusive, Martin released his three
Rottweiler dogs.
Aldin, who was also from the Newark area, returned to a vehicle where other
people were waiting for him and Martin saw the men trying to run down his
dogs.
At this stage he fetched a shotgun and shot a hole in the rear wing of the
vehicle.
Police opposed Martin being given bail prior to the trial, partly, because of
his history of misbehaviour with firearms. But their objections were
overruled by a judge.
Martin told police that the 12-bore pump action Winchester he used to shoot
Barras and Fearon had been left in his car by a "well-wisher" on a date he
could not remember.
He said he had never fired it before or taken any interest in it, even though
he kept it under his bed.
But a ballistics expert found that the gun was in good working order and
well-oiled.
Police also found boxes of cartridges for the gun apparently stationed around
Bleak House.
They believe they were put their by Martin as part of his security
arrangements in case of a break in.
Martin, who said he was not a good shot and only ever used a shotgun to scare
pigeons, denied that. He said the cartridges were just part of the rubbish
lying around the house.
He said that on the night of the shootings he loaded the gun with cartridges
from a bag he kept in his bedroom. The police found no such bag.
Kenneth Pantling
Whatever happens they have got
The Maxim Gun, and we have not.
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