Tony Martin, who killed burglar at farmhouse, dies

Convicted killer Tony Martin, who shot dead a teenage intruder in his home in 1999, has died at the age of 80, a family friend has said.

The killing of 16-year-old Fred Barras at Martin’s Norfolk farmhouse was hugely controversial at the time, with the country divided over whether his actions were pre-meditated, or simply a farmer defending himself and his property.

Martin was jailed in 2000 for the boy’s murder, and for injuring another man, 29-year-old Brendan Fearon in the same incident, before being released three years later after the murder conviction was reduced to manslaughter.

Martin lived on his own at his sprawling, semi-derelict farmhouse in Emneth Hungate, near Wisbech on the Norfolk/Cambridgeshire border at the time of the incident.