TexasCHLforum.com

Friday October 7,2011
By Padraic Flanagan
A HERO homeowner was last night being held for attempted murder after using a shotgun to defend his property from suspected burglars.
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Neighbours of Mr White, who is 60 and described as a pillar of the local community in Whitbourne, Herefordshire, were furious after discovering that he had been arrested.

The incident comes after Prime Minister David Cameron promised in June that the new Justice Bill would “put beyond doubt that homeowners and small shopkeepers who use reasonable force to defend themselves or their properties will not be prosecuted”.

The debate has raged since 1999 when Norfolk farmer Tony Martin fatally shot burglar Fred Barras, 16, with an illegal shotgun as he fled.

Martin was jailed for murder and sentenced to life, which was reduced on appeal in 2001 to five years for manslaughter.

Only last month, businessman Vincent Cooke was questioned and bailed by police on suspicion of murder after allegedly stabbing an armed intruder to death while protecting his family home in Bramhall, Cheshire.

In the latest case, neighbours said the raiders were trying to steal the keys to a £50,000 Audi A8 in the driveway of Stocking Gobbetts, the name of Mr White’s 220-year-old home.

Neighbour Sue Haywood, 62, a retired school teacher, said locals were furious that Mr White had been arrested.