Sir Brian Leveson (pictured), sitting with Mr Justice Cranston, said it is up to a jury to determine whether the householder's action was reasonable in the circumstances

Judges have backed ‘bash a burglar’ laws that give householders the right to use force to tackle intruders.

In a landmark ruling, the High Court said allowing people to use ‘disproportionate’ levels of violence to protect themselves and their families from housebreakers did not breach human rights laws.

In 2013, then Justice Secretary Chris Grayling toughened up self-protection laws to dispel doubts over the right to fight back against burglars.

But the ‘householder defence’ was challenged by the family of a man who has been in a coma for more than two years after he was tackled when he entered a home at 3am.

Denby Collins, 39, was restrained in a headlock by several terrified members of the household in Gillingham, Kent, in December 2013 and when police arrived to arrest him on suspicion of burglary he was unconscious.

Mr Collins was taken to hospital but has remained in a coma ever since and doctors say he has little prospect of getting better.

Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders decided in September 2014 not to prosecute the homeowner, known only as ‘B’ for legal reasons.

Under the rules, a person is permitted to use ‘disproportionate force’ to challenge an intruder in their home, which could include the use of lethal force. Only ‘grossly disproportionate’ force is illegal.

Mr Collins’s father Peter, who disputes that his son was an intruder, launched a legal battle claiming the ‘bash a burglar’ laws contravened Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects life.

But yesterday the High Court in London threw out the case. Two judges said the law was compatible with human rights legislation. Sir Brian Leveson, president of the Queen’s Bench Division, said: ‘A householder will only be able to avail himself of the defence if the degree of force he used was reasonable in the circumstances as he believed them to be.’

Mr Justice Cranston said the law ‘meant that in householder cases the force used in self-defence is not unreasonable simply because it is disproportionate, unless, of course, it is grossly disproportionate’.

Denby Collins (pictured) has been in a coma since December 2013, having been put in a neck lock and restrained on the floor by a householder who claimed to believe that he was an intruder into his home

He added: ‘The circumstances are likely to be rare, but one can envisage force being used by householders in self-defence which is objectively disproportionate but which is reasonable given what they believed those circumstances to be.’

The Collins family said in a statement released by their solicitors, Hickman and Rose, that they were disappointed with the ruling and are considering an appeal.