Farmer's shot 'accurate or lucky'

Farmer Tony Martin arrives for the appeal court hearing

A farmer who shot and killed a teenage burglar would have had to have fired with "extraordinary accuracy or luck" if his version of events was to believed, the Court of Appeal has been told.

Tony Martin was convicted of murder in April 2000 after he shot and killed 16-year-old burglar Fred Barras and wounded the teenager's accomplice Brendon Fearon.

The appeal court is re-examining the murder verdict in the light of fresh evidence on Martin, who has always maintained he acted in self defence.

Ballistic expert, Dr Graham Renshaw, told the court that cartridge discharge particles found on the staircase at Martin's house in Ementh, near Norfolk, backed up his claim that he was coming down the stairs when he shot Barras.

Fred Barras was an experienced burglar

Dr Renshaw said the space through which Martin would have had to have shot at the bottom of the steps was a 10-inch gap.

If Martin had been on the fifth step however, the gap would only be seven-and-a-half inches wide, the court was told.

Presiding judge Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, suggested that the shot would have had to be "extraordinarily accurate".

Dr Renshaw said: "Accurate or fortuitous."

Fearon, who was shot in the groin by Martin, said all three shots were fired in the breakfast room and not from the stairs.

But Martin has always maintained that he heard a noise while in bed, came down the stairs and opened fire in self defence.

Dr Renshaw told the appeal hearing: "It was always my clearly stated opinion that the fatal shot could have been fired from the stairs."

Martin's new legal team believe that the farmer's conviction was thoroughly unsafe.

They have argued that his lawyers at the original trial made a mistake because they allowed the jury to accept that Martin was on the ground floor throughout the incident.

They adopted a tactical position to avoid any inference that after firing the first shot, Martin had followed the intruders before firing again.

The appeal hearing was adjourned until Wednesday morning.