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DAILY TELEGRAPH NEWS 11 January 2000. By David Sapsted.
Farmer shot youth dead as raiders took silver
THE first detailed account of the night a 16-year-old youth was shot dead by a farmer who interrupted a burglary at his home was given in court yesterday.
Fred Barras died last August when he and two accomplices drove from Newark, Notts, to burgle a farm in Norfolk that they thought was "unoccupied and near-derelict".
Tony Martin, 57 the ownerof the farmhouse, Bleak House in Enmeth, near Wisbech, was in bed when Barras and Brendon Fearon, the gang leader, broke in. Ian ]ames, prosecuting, told Norwich Crown Court :
"On becoming aware of the presence of strangers, Mr Martin had armed himself with a shotgun. Having located the men downstairs, Mr Martin shot at them several times."
Fearon, hit by 196 pellets in the back of his legs, wrenched a window from its back, fel l out after him.
"Barras only managed to crawl a matter of yards from the window where he died of his injuries. He was found the following morning, said Mr ]ames.
Yesterday's hearing before ]udge David Mellor was to pass sentence on Fear on, 29, and Darren Bark, 33,' the gang's driver, both of whom admitted conspiracy to burgle last month.
Mr ]ames said that Fearon had planned to burgle Bleak House after he had heard fellow travell ers talking in a Newark pub two months earlier about the farm, which had been burgled several times.
Fearon later told police that he had overheard that the farm contained valuable furniture and small antiques and that he decided to take a pop at it." On Aug 20, he persuaded Bark to drive him and Barras from Newark to the farm. Bark stayed in the car waiting in a lane.
Barras and Fearon, armed with a torch. screwdriver and several bags, were making their way up the farm drive when they were alarmed by the barking of Mr Martin' s rottweillers.
They retreated from the dogs and as they did so happened across the farmhouse which is difficult to see from the lane," said Mr ]ames.
He said Barras used a screwdriver to prize open a window.
They crossed the hall in the house, which has no electricity, and went into a downstairs room where they placed several pieces of silverware in the bags before Mr Martin, who faces being tried for murder later this year, opened fire.
Chris Kessling, defending Fearon, admitted that his client had organised the "expedition". "That expedition," he said, "became something far greater" than Fearon bad expected. "He was shot and he lost a close, young friend; feels extreme guilt about."
A psychiatrist's report showed Fearon was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Before the burglary, said Mr Kessling, he was "overconfident, complacent, arrogant" , but now suffered flashbacks and was tearful.
Fearon, who still walks with a stick, had 11 pellets in his thigh and had physiotherapy twice a week. Fearon was jailed for three years and Bark was given two and half years with an additional 12 months outstanding from earlier offences. They will be released on licence after 1 serving half their sentences.
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Emneth in rural Norfolk: Scene of a recent shooting
Crime wave strikes farmers
The UK's farmers are increasingly at risk of burglary, vandalism and violence, a survey says.
The research for BBC One's Countryfile programme says that more than half of farmers who own land on the fringes of towns and cities have suffered at the hands of criminals in the past year.
Farmers risk burglary, vandalism and attacks on animals and machinery - and are now facing the threat of physical and verbal abuse, according to the research.
Recent events near the Norfolk village of Emneth, near Wisbech, where a suspected burglar was shot and killed, sparked a shower of complaints about rural crime levels from local residents.
Farmer Tony Martin now stands accused of murder following the incident.
North East worst hit
The survey of 120 farmers found that a third had been subjected to verbal abuse and one in 10 to physical abuse.
Nearly half (45%) had encountered vandalism and 20% had suffered arson attacks.
One in five said they feared attack and 40% said they thought crime on the urban fringes was getting worse.
The survey, carried out for the BBC by Broadcasting Support Services, also showed that 55% had suffered burglary, with farm machinery being the most popular target, but animals and crops were also targeted.
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Farmers in the North East and Yorkshire were worst hit by crime.
'Farming against people'
One family, the Alderslades, tenant farmers at Wardley, near Sunderland, say they had noticed the changes since their farm was engulfed by a main road and sprawling housing estates.
The Alderslades have had pregnant cows shot and butchered in their fields, bales of straw set alight, 85 acres of corn destroyed by fire, repeated theft of farm equipment and stone-throwing attacks on buildings, machinery and members of the family while working in the fields.
Geoff Alderslade said: "Fences broken down, cattle slaughtered in the fields, trampled crops, fire to straw stacks.
"You're not just farming against the weather, you're farming against people."
In an effort to curb the attacks, 60% of farmers said they had joined crime prevention schemes.
The Home Office said 400 crime reduction strategies were now in place across the country.
A spokesman said: "Those partnerships covering rural areas should be addressing specific local crime problems and the concerns of the rural community."
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