Tony Martin: How I killed burglar

Tony Martin has revealed for the first time exactly what happened on the night he killed a teenage burglar in his isolated farmhouse and how he was "frozen with fear".

The 58-year-old farmer was released from prison two days ago after serving three years of a five-year sentence for manslaughter for shooting dead 16-year-old Fred Barras and wounding his accomplice, Brendon Fearon, 33, after they broke into his home, Bleak House, in the isolated Norfolk village of Emneth Hungate.

Martin, who has sold his story to the Daily Mirror and has yet to return home, also admits to the newspaper that he feels "nothing" for Barras's family. Yet he insists: "I was devastated when I discovered I had killed a boy."

Intruders in the House

Martin had been to see his mother before returning home. He says he had made a cup of coffee before retreating to his bedroom - the only room in the house with working lights - to read Farmers Weekly.

He says he was asleep on the bed when he "woke to hear the noise of intruders downstairs. There is a big difference between how you might react if someone approaches you in the middle of the day and when you have just woken up."

He says that although he was overwhelmed with the desire to lie there and do nothing and tried to convince himself nothing was happening, he knew he was going to have to leave the bed and confront the intruders. Martin says: "I was frozen with fear ... I remember saying to myself 'I've got to get off the bed'."

He managed to walk through the bathroom to the main hallway. He says he heard a noise on the stairs which put "sheer terror" into him. He went back to the bedroom and watched the door from the other side of the room.

The Moment he fired the gun

Martin says he was convinced he was about to be attacked in his bedroom and says that was the moment he decided to look for his gun. He denied the allegation at the trial that he kept the gun beside the bed, and instead insists that he had to search for it.

Eventually, says Martin, he found the weapon under the bed, buried underneath a pile of newspapers and old clothes.

"I went over to the chair and got a handful of cartridges and loaded the gun. By this time I could feel my heart going boom boom boom. My heart was racing, it was as though my whole body was about to explode. It was like a horror film.

"It just seemed like I had no options. I could have jumped out of the window, but I didn't fancy my chances. I decided to go out of the bedroom - but I had no idea if there was anyone waiting for me around the corner."

He says he was aware there could be someone and it occurred to him that if they hit him over the head he would drop the gun and then there was no knowing what they might do. he started to go downstairs - to get out of the house.

"I saw a blinding light like the sun in your eyes. There was this really bright light in my face and I was blinded."

He says: "My finger was on the trigger and I fired. I was aware I had shot the gun. At the time I had no idea I had fired more than once. I was still on the stairs. At the time I didn't know what was happening, who was there or what they were doing. I didn't know I had hit anyone."

He says the police tried to make out he had fired at the burglars from outside and refused to believe he was on the staircase-when he confronted them. "But I know for sure the light was shone on me while I was on the stairs and that's where I fired from. I fired low, but because I was on the staircase that was where it went wrong."

Without phoning the police, he decided to leave the house and go to tell a neighbour he had been burgled. "At the time I didn't know I had shot anyone."

After the shooting

Martin drove to his mother's house, where he left the gun, before going to a hotel in Wisbech, Cambs, owned by his friend Helen Lilley. He says the next thing he remembers is Mrs Lilley telling him a policeman wanted to talk to him.

But he still insists he had no idea the police wanted to talk to him about shooting someone. He says it was only on the afternoon of the following day that he was charged with GBH against Fearon and only later that night was he told that Fred Barras was dead.

Martin says he never heard the teenager scream or call out for his mother, despite what Fearon said. Barras's body lay close to his house through most of Saturday before being found by Bruno, one of his Rottweilers. Martin says: "I didn't know he was there. No one knew. The police didn't know."

What led to the shooting

Martin reveals he told police three months before Barras's death he had told police that if any burglar came to his house again he would shoot them.

He says: "The reason I said this was because I hoped it would make them protect me, provoke a response, spur them on to do something."

He claims that a friend had told him that if you tell the police that will commit a serious offence they will take you very seriously and turn out rather than ignore your complaints.

How he feels about Fred Barras

Martin says he "feels nothing" for Fred Barras's grief-stricken family. But he is quick to add that he was "devastated" when he found he had "killed a boy".

He insists: "Nobody has the right to kill. Even to suggest so is crass and deplorable."

He says that he is deeply misunderstood and says many people think of him as some kind of trigger-happy loner who is "only too happy to kill."

Martin says: "All I can say is that I didn't mean to do it. I didn't even know I'd done it until later. Yes, I pulled the trigger but I wasn't aiming at him. I was scared, it was dark. I didn't know what I was doing."

Martin says he feels nothing for the Barras family but understands why they hate him. As for feeling remorse for Barras's death, Martin says: "Remorse is a personal, deeply private thing.

"It doesn't matter what you say, it changes nothing. No one has the right to take another human life. I don't even think we should kill animals."

A book

Martin denies he has any plans to write a book. "I just want to get back to farming," he says.