Dilapidated farmhouse the place Tony Martin shot and killed teenage burglar is cleared out – amid thriller over who now owns it
A dilapidated farmhouse where convicted killer Tony Martin shot dead a teenage intruder is finally being cleared exactly one year after his death – but mystery surrounds who now owns it.
New photos show a huge pile of rubbish outside the crumbling remains of Bleak House, near Wisbech on the Norfolk and Cambridgeshire border.
The heap includes filing cabinets, drawers, a bicycle, oil drums and a lawnmower.
There have been suggestions that whoever took over the property from Martin, who died from a stroke at the age of 80, could be clearing it ready to put on the market.
A yellow digger was also be seen parked near the rubbish pile.
The outbuildings now appear to be empty and the high grass and brambles, which were around the farmhouse a year ago, have also been trimmed.
Martin never returned to Bleak House after he finished his prison sentence for the manslaughter of 16-year-old Fred Barras in 2003.
He is believed to have lived in cars, a barn and a rented house before his health declined.
Tony Martin is pictured outside his farmhouse called Bleak House in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk, shortly after his release from prison in August 2003
New photos show a huge pile of rubbish outside the crumbling remains of Bleak House, near Wisbech on the Norfolk and Cambridgeshire border
The house was already in a dilapidated state before the killing and today it is crumbling into the ground.
In an interview with the EDP newspaper three years ago, Martin said his land was being worked by someone else and he planned to leave the farmhouse to someone when he died – but their identity has not been revealed.
The house has no front door or windows and there are holes in the roof.
The glass, which the burglars broke to gain entry into the house ahead of the shooting, still lies on the floor and there are shotgun pellets embedded in the wall at the foot of the stairs.
The killing of 16-year-old Fred Barras on August 20 1999 sparked controversy, with opinions divided over whether Martin’s actions were premeditated or else a farmer justifiably defending himself and his property.
Martin was jailed in 2000 for the teenager’s murder and for injuring another man, 29-year-old Brendan Fearon, in the same incident.
Barras and Fearon had raided Mr Martin’s property on August 20 1999, with the pair travelling from Newark, Nottinghamshire.
On hearing the break-in, Mr Martin came downstairs from an upstairs bedroom and opened fire with a pump-action shotgun.
Martin shot dead burglar Fred Barras (pictured), 16, at his farm Bleak House in Emneth Hungate near Emneth, Norfolk, in 1999
Martin never returned to Bleak House after he finished his prison sentence for the manslaughter of 16-year-old Fred Barras in 2003
A rubbish heap outside the farmhouse includes filing cabinets, drawers, a bicycle, oil drums and a lawnmower – while a yellow digger has also been pictured nearby
After the shooting, an injured Mr Fearon crawled to a nearby house for help.
Mr Barras was found dead the following day in undergrowth surrounding Martin’s property where the farmer stored antiques.
Martin, who never married and had no children, was released in 2003 after the murder conviction was reduced to manslaughter.
The pensioner had inherited the £3million Bleak House Farm in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk, on the death of aunt four decades ago.
When interviewed after his release from jail, Mr Martin always insisted those who broke into other people’s properties deserved all they got.
Speaking in 2019, he said: ‘What happened to me is important to every man, woman and child in this country – not just to me.’
And two years ago Martin insisted he ‘doesn’t regret anything’ relating to the events of August 20 1999, adding: ‘You may think I’ve got a chip on my shoulder but I’m bound to.
‘I haven’t met anybody who says I was wrong. I don’t think people appreciate what happened. I’ve been naive, I’m too honest for my own good and I don’t like dishonesty.
There have been suggestions that whoever took over the property from Martin, who died after a stroke at the age of 80, could be clearing it ready to put on the market with the new clearance
New pictures this month – exactly a year on from Martin’s death – show the current state of his former home in Norfolk
At his trial, prosecutors claimed Martin had booby-trapped his home and armed himself with an illegal weapon – he was convicted of murder though this was later reduced to manslaughter
‘I would like to appeal but you can’t because you need fresh evidence. My idea of fresh evidence and their idea are different.
‘I’d love to clear my name before I die but it may never happen. The law won’t allow it.’
Martin died on February 2 2025, confirmed by a family friend a family friend who said he had suffered a stroke a few months earlier.
Speaking later that month, Mr Fearon told of having ‘no anger’ towards the farmer who he said ‘probably suffered as much in his life as I have’ since then.
Mr Fearon told the Mirror: ‘Life’s not been kind to me but it was much crueller to little Fred, who lost his life, and his family.
‘But I have never felt any bitterness or animosity towards that farmer.
‘He did what he had to do to protect himself and his home.
‘I’m not saying he should have shot someone dead – that’s wrong – but he felt persecuted by us and we shouldn’t have been there.’
Brendon Fearon (pictured in December 1999) broke into Tony Martin’s Norfolk home earlier that year with fellow burglar Fred Barras, 16 – he since said he had ‘no anger’ towards the farmer
At his trial, prosecutors claimed Mr Martin had anticipated the burglary and lain in wait – but he claimed to have been acting in self-defence.
He was initially convicted of murder and jailed for life in April 2000, with 10 years to run concurrently for a wounding offence and a further 12 months for possession of an illegal firearm.
But the charge was later downgraded to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility, after Mr Martin was diagnosed with paranoid personality disorder.
A decade later in 2013, the law was changed with the Crime and Courts Act providing a ‘householder’s defence’ if someone used ‘reasonable’ force against an intruder that was not ‘grossly disproportionate’.
