Tony Martin released

The BBC reports that Tony Martin has been released from prison.

In April 2000 Martin was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for shooting dead a burglar who had attempted to enter his isolated rural home. The verdict was reduced to manslaughter on appeal and the sentence cut to three years.

The news of Martin's release has been accompanied by reports that police are providing twenty-four hour security at his Norfolk home.

He may well need the protection. The family of Fred Barras, the sixteen year old killed by Martin, are reported to be furious at his release and there are rumours that friends of Barras are offering money to have Martin killed. Given the background and character of Barras’s known associates, this seems not at all unlikely.

At the time of the trial, the case of Tony Martin aroused a lot of interest both over here and in the United States.

Discussion of the case brought up issues around crime and violence, rural policing, gun ownership and the right to self-defence but the investigation came to focus on Martin’s state of mind at the time of the incident.

Martin had been subjected to repeated break-ins at his property and it was said that he had sat up through the night, gun in hand, waiting for someone to break in. It was argued he had formed an intent to wound prior to the event and he could not therefore claim to have been acting wholly in self-defence. It was this, rather than the question of whether of not he used unreasonable force (none of the burglars had a gun) that resulted in the murder charge against him.

I'm pleased he's out but, to my mind, he should never have been jailed in the first place.

The BBC has a timeline for those unfamiliar with the story.