Column Number: 62
When Brendon Fearon was interviewed about the Bill, he said—I am paraphrasing—that a change in the law would deter the sort of acts in which he had been involved. He is a convicted criminal, saying that if the law is changed in favour of the householder or shop owner, rather than the intruder or burglar, he would regard that as a distinct deterrent.
Harry Cohen (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab): What did Brendon Fearon mean by that? Did he mean that the law should be changed to allow a householder to kill a burglar, or that he would not have attempted a burglary if a householder could kill a burglar? That is not what the hon. Gentleman’s Bill is about, so what does he think Brendon Fearon meant?
Patrick Mercer: Clearly, it is difficult for me to put words in the mouth of Brendon Fearon, and many other people have observed that difficulty, too. However, I believe he meant that the law is currently biased in favour of the burglar or intruder, and that the risk of imprisonment or physical harm lies with the householder or shop owner, rather than with the burglar. I believe that he meant that if the law is changed, that would form a deterrent.
I have received huge support from the police across the nation, and they have made it clear that if the Bill is changed, and the test of gross disproportionality is moved from civil to criminal law, and the same area of law has a single test rather then two separate tests, that would deter burglary. If it does so, the concomitant would be to deter the likelihood of bloody confrontation within the house.
Mr. Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab): In the Tony Martin case, surely Mr. Fearon was traumatised by the events. The fact is that Mr. Martin stuck a shotgun in somebody’s back at point-blank range and pulled the trigger. That may deter that individual from intruding again, but surely killing an innocent person in those circumstances does not make it <myspace><myspace>right</myspace></myspace&g t; in a just society.
Patrick Mercer: I could not agree more. I am rarely in disagreement with the hon. Gentleman, and I agree with him now, as usual. If he had attended the previous Committee sitting, he would have heard me say the same thing, but the Bill would not give Tony Martin a defence in any shape or form. Had Bill been an Act and had Tony Martin been tried under it, he would have been found guilty of disproportionate behaviour that was way beyond reasonable force.
I refer the Minister to the leaflet and repeat that it has not been properly distributed. The Home Office has a habit of failing to distribute leaflets correctly, such as the counter-terrorism leaflet, and I like to think that I played a small part in provoking the Government to issue that last summer. However, 1.5 million households, and police stations up and down the country, have yet to receive this leaflet.
The Minister highlighted the column of the leaflet with the heading:
“What if the intruder dies?”
