British judge says farmer was right to shoot burglar

The debate over how much force a person can use to defend their property, ongoing in SA, has also been revived in Britain where a judge said a farmer who shot a burglar acted reasonably. The Telegraph reports Judge Andrew Hamilton, sentencing the burglar to seven years in jail for a string of similar crimes, said it was ‘a pity’ that prosecutors had even thought of bringing charges of assault against the farmer, Kenneth Faulkner. The case has echoes of the conviction for murder of Tony Martin, a Norfolk farmer, after he shot dead a burglar at his farmhouse in 1999. The Court of Appeal ruled that Martin had used unreasonable force but reduced his conviction to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after he had suffered numerous burglaries.
Full report in The Telegraph

 

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