That well known trendy lefty liberal campaigning rag, ‘The Daily Telegraph’ outlined Barras' criminal record, and his emotional state at the time. The paper revealed that:
“THE teenage burglar shot dead at a farmhouse last August had a criminal record stretching back to when he was 12, Norwich Crown Court was told yesterday. Fred Barras, 16, had made 18 court appearances - mainly for burglary and theft but including two for assaults on policemen - by the time he was shot in the back at Bleak House in Emneth, Norfolk”
Other papers reported that this was to have been Barras' first 'big job'. The Telegraph described the incident in some detail.
"Fearon maintained that he and Barras had set out to rob a cottage in the farm's grounds and had entered the farmhouse only to escape Martin's three guard dogs......Confronted by one of the rottweilers, however, he said the pair retreated into a wooded area. Mr Fearon said: "Fred was clinging to my shoulder. He was frightened and crying." With the dog snarling and barking, he said they had stumbled across what they believed was a shed and accidentally smashed a window. They clambered in to escape the dog. They were not interested in stealing anything by this time, he said. Then the shooting started. "I saw what I thought was a torch. I saw a flash. I heard Fred say: 'He got me.' " He said he turned to see an "old man" in the hallway. "I saw another flash and next my leg felt numb."
"Tony Martin, 55, shot Fred Barras in the back from about 12 feet, causing injuries that killed him within two minutes, it was claimed. Fearon said in desperation to escape he ripped out a window covered in iron bars. He had crawled away, across a field, passing out twice before reaching a bungalow. Barras crawled after him but collapsed and died in undergrowth about 15 yards from the house.
Rosamund Horwood-Smart, QC, prosecuting, said that Mr Martin had not acted in self-defence and the shooting had been calculated. Mrs Horwood-Smart told the court that the dying teenager's last words were: "He's got me. I'm sorry. Please don't. Mum!"
Mrs Horwood-Smart added: "He was vitriolic about burglars, particularly gipsies, and he talked about putting them in one of his fields surrounded by barbed wire and machinegunning them." She said the unsolved thefts from his farm had led to him losing all faith in the police to handle rural crime. "You're on your own and you're the law," he told fellow farmers, according to the prosecution.
Mrs Horwood-Smart said: "He fired at Barras and Fearon not in self-defence but in accordance with his professed view that the only way to stop thieves was to shoot them. In acting the way he did, his intent was to kill or cause really serious injuries to his victims."
The Telegraph also offered the snippet that it had been alleged that:
"after the shooting, Martin had planted two silver jugs and a silver pot found in the holdalls he had left in the farmhouse, in an attempt to justify killing Barras."
and that
"Martin went to his neighbours and told them that he had shot at what he believed to be three burglars. He was told to call the police. He drove to his mother's home, where he left the shotgun in a lavatory, and went to a friend's hotel in Wisbech, where he was arrested at about 7am on Aug 21."