Tony Martin, the farmer who shot dead a burglar, has said that he would not think twice about killing another intruder, insisting: “What goes around comes around.”

Martin became a cause célèbre in 1999 when he shot Fred Barras, 16, at his remote farmhouse in Norfolk, where he lived alone. The farmer slept with a loaded shotgun under his bed after being plagued by burglaries.

He was found guilty of murder for killing Barras and wounding his accomplice, Brendon Fearon. Prosecutors accused him of shooting them in cold blood and a jury rejected his claim to have acted in self-defence. Martin was sentenced to life but after a public outcry the conviction was reduced to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was freed