Shot burglar had criminal record
12 April 2000
Shot burglar ‘had criminal record’
By FWi staff
FRED BARRAS, the teenage burglar shot dead at Bleak House Farm in Norfolk last August, had a criminal record stretching back to when he was 12, Norwich Crown Court was told on Tuesday (11 April).
Mr Barras, aged 16, had made 18 court appearances, mainly for burglary and theft, but including two for assaulting policeman before he was last summer, reports The Daily Telegraph.
He had also been sentenced to a number of spells in a youth detention centre and, at the time of his shooting, was on bail for another offence.
Other members of the gang who set out from Newark, Nottinghamshire on 20 August last year all carried a string of convictions behind them.
Brendon Fearon, 30, had been before the court 35 times, and had been jailed three times for burglary and once for wounding, reports the Daily Mail.
Darren Bark, 34, who was the driver in the botched burglary at Bleak House, had been in court 52 times and jailed for burglary twice.
On the second day of farmer John Martins trial, the court heard that the rural community of Emneth was plagued by crime.
Martin denies murder, the attempted murder of Fearon and a further charge of wounding Fearon with intent.
He has pleaded not guilty to possession of a Winchester pump-action shotgun with intent to endanger life, although he admits possessing the firearm with no certificate.
- Accused farmer didnt trust police, FWi, yesterday (11 April, 2000)
- The Daily Telegraph, 12/04/00, page 13
- Daily Mail, 12/04/00, page 17