February 2nd 2025.
Growing up on a wealthy family's farm in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, Tony Martin was surrounded by guns, as his mother Hilary recalled in 2000. His father was an avid shooter, but Tony himself was never particularly interested in the activity. He didn't have a taste for killing and preferred to avoid it.
However, on August 20, 1999, Tony found himself in a situation where he had to use his shotgun to defend his home and himself. Two burglars, 16-year-old Fred Barras and 29-year-old Brendon Fearon, had broken into his Norfolk farmhouse. Tony fired three shots from the stairs, fatally injuring Fred and injuring Brendon.
The night before, Fred had been boasting to his friends in Newark, Nottinghamshire about his upcoming "big job". According to his mother Ellen, he had fallen in with the wrong crowd. She had even bought him chicken and chips for dinner that evening, not knowing it would be his last meal. She was devastated by his death and said that she would never be happy again.
The shooting at Bleak House sparked a national debate about whether it was an act of premeditated violence or justified self-defense. Tony argued that he was defending himself and his home, which was semi-derelict and filled with antiques. The prosecution, on the other hand, claimed that he had been waiting for the intruders and planned to harm them.
Initially, Tony was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. However, after a diagnosis of paranoid personality disorder, his charge was downgraded to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was released from prison after serving three years of his sentence.
Tony's mother insisted that he was not a violent person and had never been involved in fights. She described him as friendly and kind. His friend Malcolm Starr also described him as eccentric and said that he enjoyed meeting people and discussing history books.
Unfortunately, Tony's troubles did not end with his release from prison. In 2013, he almost found himself in a situation similar to the 1999 shooting when he saw a man trying to steal car batteries on his property. However, he chose not to engage in another altercation and instead called the police.
Tony passed away on February 2 at the age of 80, after suffering a stroke in December. He had lived for over 25 years after the shooting that sparked national debate. Fred Barras, the boy he had killed, had a lengthy criminal record and his family believed that he would have eventually turned his life around and found a job.
Despite the tragedy and the ongoing legal battles, Tony's mother and friend believed that he tried to carry on with his life as normally as possible after his release. He simply wanted to move on from the past and put the ordeal behind him. However, the memories of that night in 1999 and the national attention it received would always haunt him.
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