Shotgun farmer's life sentence reduced

Farmer Tony Martin's murder conviction and life sentence for the shotgun killing of a teenageburglar were today reduced by the Court of Appeal to manslaughter and a five–year jail term.

Martin's 10–year sentence for wounding the burglar's accomplice was also cut to three years, to run concurrently.

The ruling dashed hopes that Martin, who has served 18 months, would be freed immediately.

But he will be eligible for release in about a year's time after serving half the new sentence.

The appeal judges accepted new psychiatric evidence that Martin was suffering from a paranoid personality disorder when he fatally shot 16–year–old Fred Barras with a pump–action shotgun and wounded Brendon Fearon, now 30, at remote Bleak House, Emneth Hungate, near Emneth, Norfolk, on the night of August 20, 1999.

Martin, 56, was therefore entitled to have the murder verdict quashed and replaced with a conviction of manslaughter on the ground of diminished responsibility, they ruled.