A Norfolk farmer who sparked a national outcry when he was jailed for killing a burglar and wounding another has died at the age of 80.

Tony Martin gunned down Fred Barras and Brendon Fearon with a pump-action shotgun after the pair broke into his ramshackle farm near Wisbech on the night of August 20, 1999.

They had travelled from Newark in Nottinghamshire that evening to raid the property, Bleak House, where Mr Martin stored antiques.

Mr Barras, aged 16, was found dead in undergrowth surrounding the property at Emneth Hungate the following day.

Fred Barras, 16, who was shot and killed by Tony Martin in August, 1999Fred Barras, 16, who was shot and killed by Tony Martin in August, 1999 (Image: Submitted) How the EDP of the time reported the shootings at Bleak HouseHow the EDP of the time reported the shootings at Bleak House (Image: Archant)

Mr Fearon, then aged 29, managed to crawl to a nearby house to summon help.

Mr Martin was jailed for life in April 2000 after a jury at Norwich Crown Court found him guilty of murder.

During the trial, Martin claimed to have been acting in self-defence while prosecutors argued he had anticipated the pair and lay in wait for them.

The case attracted huge public attention, with Mr Martin's supporters casting him as a man taking a stand to defend his home and others as a reckless vigilante.

His conviction was reduced to manslaughter on appeal the following year and he was freed to return to his farm in 2003.

Bleak House, at Emneth Hungate, where the shootings happenedBleak House, at Emneth Hungate, where the shootings happened (Image: Newsquest) From that day onwards, the eccentric farmer expressed no regrets and came to epitomise the debate over how much force it was reasonable for a householder to use when confronted by intruders.

He always insisted those who broke into other people's properties deserved all they got. 

In 2013, the Crime and Courts Act, gave people a "householder's defence" if they used "reasonable" force against an intruder that was not "grossly disproportionate" - a change influenced by the case.

Educated at Glebe House School, in Hunstanton, Mr Martin spent time travelling including a spell in New Zealand, before being left Bleak House - a then grand farmhouse surrounded by orchards.

Tony Martin pictured after his release from prisonTony Martin pictured after his release from prison (Image: John Hocknell) It gradually fell into disrepair, with Mr Martin describing interior faults such as part of a staircase missing as botched DIY rather than booby traps set for the burglars he claimed had plagued him.

He never returned to live at the house after being freed from prison, sleeping for many years in a car parked in one of his barns.
 
Instead it remained secured with steel shutters as part of its roof fell in and ivy lay siege to its walls.

Tony Martin pictured at work on his farm after his release from prisonTony Martin pictured at work on his farm after his release from prison (Image: Matthew Usher) Mr Martin worked the farm from time to time and still suffered occasional break-ins, along with invasions from so-called urban explorers, who entered his former home and posted pictures of the squalor inside.

He gave away little about his domestic arrangements in his later years, but is understood to have been living in a friend's house until falling ill in December.

He was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, where he died on Sunday, February 2.

Mr Martin, who was born in Wisbech on December 16, 1944, was a lifelong bachelor who left no family.