Martin denied House of Lords appeal

Martin's murder conviction was reduced to manslaughter

Norfolk farmer Tony Martin, who was jailed for killing a teenager burglar at his remote farmhouse, has failed in a final attempt to clear his name.

Martin, 56, has been refused permission to take his case for acquittal to the House of Lords.

It was effectively his last chance to overturn his conviction for the manslaughter of 16-year-old Fred Barras in August 1999.

Last October, the Court of Appeal reduced Martin's murder conviction to manslaughter and cut his sentence to five years, meaning he will be eligible for parole at the end of this year.

The court accepted new psychiatric evidence that Martin was suffering from a paranoid personality disorder.

Martin lived in a ramshackle farmhouse

But Martin wanted to challenge that decision in the House of Lords, in a bid to have all charges against him quashed.

Martin intended to argue that the Court of Appeal was wrong to dismiss psychiatric evidence that he claims showed that he had acted in self-defence because he considered he was in great danger.

In a December ruling, which was published on Monday, the House of Lords ordered that the Court of Appeal decision be upheld.

Martin has so far served about 22 months in prison for shooting Fred Barras of Newark, Nottinghamshire, with a shot gun.

He also wounded a second burglar, Brendon Fearon, after the pair broke into his isolated farmhouse in Emneth Hungate in Norfolk.