Tony Martin, who killed burglar at farmhouse, dies

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rq4evqq75o

by CarOnMyFuckingFence

21 comments

  4. Not sure of the title. He was targeted repeatedly by local burglars. Defended his property and was jailed for it. This did not appear to be justice. Hope he now rests in peace.

  5. RIP, a hero who took out the vermin. Imagine being in an isolated house and being continually burgled.

  6. Damn, I remember learning about him in my criminal law lectures.

  10. RIP Mr Martin, you stood up against the scum makes you all good in my book

  11. I remember this well as did not live too far away.

    Please remember he was constantly burgled (rural crime was really bad back then) the police were no help at all

    So yes he lay in wait knowing he would be burgled. The big issue was he shot the boy as he was running away. And he was not in danger himself. However he had been failed so many times he took the law into his own hands.

    That was why it spilt the country at the time.

    Just imagine if you were continually burgled by the same people time and time again.

  13. RIP. He was the victim and had every right to fight back against those thugs. If that criminal didn’t want to be shot at, then he shouldn’t have been breaking into Mr Martin’s home!

  14. All these comments saying he was innocent and defending his land, other comments saying it was premeditated.

    The common definition being “where the defendant uses necessary, reasonable and proportionate force to defend themselves or another from imminent attack”

    If someone starts a fight with you and you react by punching them to the face, that’s reasonable, as is getting into a fight with them without the use of weapons.

    If that person trying to hit you ends up unconscious on the floor, it’s not then reasonable self defense to stamp on them or volley them in the head, because the threat is then gone. How do you defend against something which has been removed from being a threat?

    That threat can extend up to murder and the person be acquitted of it, if someone assaults you and you one punch kill them, that’s proportionate and reasonable in the circumstances, because the person defending themselves never had the intention to one punch kill them.

    In this situation, two people have went to commit burglary on a property, he’s owned an illegal weapon without a license (after having it revoked for shooting at someone STEALING APPLES), all they’ve done at that point is break a window and gain entry to the building, they’ve offered no violence and no weapons have been seen, although he doesn’t know whether they’ve gotten anything on him or not.

    He issued no warning to leave or he will shoot them, he shot at them on three occasions, once as they were on the stairs, and twice as they were leaving.

    Had they come at him with weapons of their own it would have been a different argument, but they didn’t. For there to be self defence there needs to be a sufficient act to which firing at them was Reasonable, Proportionate, or Necessary, I would argue it’s not reasonable to fire at someone outright without prior warning, especially when their back was turned, it’s not proportionate to fire at unarmed (to his knowledge) individuals, especially with their backs turned running away and after already hitting them once, and it’s not necessary force in the situation.

    Criminally it’s an absolute no brainer with him being guilty, it’s the moral question of a man defending his property which is in the air.

  15. Ironically, he was shot in the back while running away from a farm he was burgling

  16. I notice that whenever someone in this thread tries to justify Martin’s actions they get real quiet when it’s pointed out he never reported any of the burglaries to the police.

    It feel like there are a disturbing number of you who just want an excuse to kill with impunity.

    Edit: Some of you definitely want to kill with impunity.

  17. I remember during my law degree we had to debate this case. People had very strong feelings about it even after so many years. I always felt for him, hopefully he’d a peace now.

  18. Newark to Wisbech is a long way to go for a burglary . I don’t doubt that they or associates of them had well scoped out the place beforehand.

  19. I always thought this case was a very ‘everybody sucks here’ case.

    He was clearly a mentally ill man to some degree.

    He planned the killing, bought an illegal gun. He shot the burglars while they fled. He was openly racist and a nasty piece of work.

    But then, they did break in. He was disturbed and alone. It’s hard to really care too much even as a GRT myself.

  20. There’s a good documentary on YouTube about the events that took place (think it was on BBC originally). I can’t say I’ve ever made my mind up properly on what I think of his actions, but I do always return to the thought that had the burglars not made a conscious decision to get in the car of an evening and drive 70 odd miles to go burgling, none of this would have happened. Like even on the 70 mile journey they could have turned around at any point and decided to go home. Whatever the rights and wrongs of Tony Martin, it’s very difficult to have sympathy for burglars.

  21. Man is a hero. An Englishman’s home is his castle.

    Everyone should have the right to defend their property and family against criminals.

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