Brendon Fearon

Brendon Fearon (born c. 1970) of Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire was convicted for conspiring to burgle the home of farmer Tony Martin on 20 August 1999. His accomplice, 16-year-old Fred Barras, was fatally shot by Martin near his remote farmhouse in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk. Fearon, aged 29 at the time, was hospitalised with gunshot wounds to his legs.

Fearon, a career criminal and Irish traveller, had been convicted at that point of about thirty offences, starting with handling stolen goods in September 1986, for which he was fined £25, through theft, burglary, drugs, fraud and wounding, for which he received a one-year prison sentence, his third and at the time longest custodial sentence, in May 1997.

Other crimes included obtaining property by deception, criminal damage, failing to surrender to bail, attempted burglary, and theft from a vehicle.

Fearon had planned to burgle Bleak House, belonging to Tony Martin, after he had heard fellow Irish travellers talking in a Newark pub two months earlier about the farm, which had been burgled several times. On 20 August, Fearon persuaded Darren Bark (then 33 years old), also from Newark-on-Trent, to drive Fred Barras and himself to the farm. Bark stayed in the car waiting in a lane, while Fearon and Barras entered the farmhouse. When confronted they attempted to flee through a window but were shot by Martin; Fearon in the leg and Barras in the back. Barras died at the site, but Fearon managed to escape and obtain medical assistance from a couple in a cottage nearby. Martin subsequently left the farm and spent the night at a friend's house.

On 10 January 2000 Fearon and Bark admitted to conspiring to burgle Martin's farmhouse. Fearon was sentenced to three years in prison and Bark to 30 months (with an additional 12 months arising from previous offences). Fearon was released on 10 August 2001.

In April of the same year Martin was convicted of murdering Barras, the charge was reduced to manslaughter, the sentence to 5 years, on appeal, due to diminished responsibility. Fearon was released after eighteen months, Martin after about three years, having been refused early parole.

...
Wikipedia