Mirror snaps up Martin story

Tony Martin today walked free from prison and into a major row over being paid to tell his story.

A tabloid newspaper has paid Martin for the rights to the story of how he shot and killed 16-year-old burglar Fred Barras during a raid on his isolated farmhouse.

The deal, believed to be worth a six-figure sum, was immediately branded "distasteful" by a leading Labour MP. It is to be investigated by the Press Complaints Commission, which is to write to the Daily Mirror and tell the newspaper it must justify why it is in the public interest to make a payment to a convict.

Derek Wyatt MP, a member of the all-party culture, media and sport select committee, said parliament was powerless to act in such cases but added: "This is distasteful." Mr Wyatt said his committee had only recently examined "buy-ups" by newspapers.

He added: "There's nothing we can do about it in cases like this. Martin is a free man who has been released from jail and can do whatever deals he wants within the law."

The case reignited the controversy over "chequebook journalism". Although Martin has broken no law by taking money from a newspaper - and the paper has broken none by offering it - under the Press Complaints Commission's voluntary code, newspapers are banned from offering payments to convicted criminals except in the "public interest". A spokesman for the PCC said: "We do not need to wait for a formal complaint. We will be investigating this ourselves." Media lawyer Mark Stephens said: "To pay Mr Martin for his story is drives a coach and horses through statements made by Mr Martin that he does not want to cause additional distress to members of the family of Fred Barras."

Mr Stephens added: "The Proceeds of Crime Act covers drugs, terrorism and money laundering. It doesn't cover a more general benefit to a criminal as in this case."

Despite his insistence that he wants only to return to his dilapidated Norfolk farmhouse, it is not known when, if ever, it will be safe for 58-year-old Martin to do so. There have been reports of an underworld contract on his life for between £25,000 and £60,000. Ishmael Steel, who claims to be Barras's cousin, said: "To those who say it's just talk I'd say 'wait and see'. The detectives can't be with him all the time."

Police have taken threats on Martin's life so seriously that they have set up a mobile police station outside the farmhouse. The irony of the measure is unlikely to be lost on Martin, who was the victim of at least 30 burglaries before the night when he turned his pump-action shotgun on Barras, killing him, and Brendon Fearon, who suffered gunshot wounds to his leg.

Outside the house today a single yellow ribbon and a bunch of red roses had been left by well-wishers. Martin's MP, Henry Bellingham, today defended his decision to sell his story. Mr Bellingham said both he and Martin were aware that there was a moral issue over convicted criminals profiting from their crimes.

"It is something that has been troubling him a great deal," said Mr Bellingham. "Mr Martin told me he had got a huge legal bill and large amounts of money are going to need to be spent to get his house fit to live in.

"He told me that all the money he makes will be spent on that."

The farmer today told how he had been driven to desperation on the night he took the law into his own hands. He said he thought he would die when the two broke into his house as a third burglar, Darren Bark, waited outside in a getaway-car. "I'm surprised I didn't have a heart attack. I thought I was in a horror movie," he said.

"I knew somebody was down there because there were lights. I walked out of the bedroom. I heard this murmuring and had the light shone in my eyes. All these things happened in a flash. I couldn't stand it any longer and then I just let the gun off."

Martin was put on trial after Fearon and Bark were jailed for the burglary, and jailed himself.

His life sentence was reduced on appeal to five years and he served two-thirds. He refused to express remorse so was not granted early parole from Highpoint Prison, Suffolk. He said: "Finding myself locked in the cells was like being in a dark hole. I was told not to talk to anybody in jail because they thought I would be attacked, but it wasn't like that."

Martin was facing a compensation claim by Fearon, over claims that his gunshot wounds ruined his sex life and chances of working - even though the career criminal has never had a job and has only just been freed from a sentence for heroin dealing.

But today there was confusion over the legal case as Fearon's brother, Joe, claimed the traveller was dropping the claim. Fearon was freed on Friday from his latest conviction.