Couple arrested over shooting of intruders at house near Melton Mowbray had been robbed several times before, say family
A homeowner is being questioned by police after he shot two suspected burglars at his remote house in Leicestershire.
The 35-year-old man and his wife, 43, were arrested after the break-in in the Welby area, near Melton Mowbray, in the early hours of Sunday.
It is understood he took a legally owned shotgun and shot two of the four intruders before calling police. He and his wife were arrested in Melton on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. Neither had been injured. The arrested man's mother said the couple's house had been broken into before. "They have been robbed three or four times," she told the Sun. "One of them was quite nasty. They have not been injured but property has been stolen."
Paramedics treated a man with shotgun injuries after the couple called police at about 12.30am, Leicestershire police said. It is understood that a second call was made by one of the suspected burglars. Later, a second man was treated for shotgun injuries after presenting himself at Leicester Royal Infirmary. The two men, whose injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, along with two others, were all arrested at the hospital on suspicion of aggravated burglary.
The case has echoes of previous incidents that prompted debate on the amount of force householders should be permitted to use to protect their property. The case of Tony Martin, who was given a life sentence for murder for shooting the 16-year-old burglar Fred Burras in the back at his remote Norfolk farm in 1999, became a cause célèbre, as he won the support of a number of politicians, commentators and members of the public. On appeal, his murder conviction was changed to manslaughter, for which he served three years in prison. Another notorious case was that of Munir Hussain, a millionaire businessman who beat an intruder with a cricket bat, leaving him with brain damage. The intruder had kidnapped Hussain's family and held them at knifepoint. Hussain was initially jailed for 30 months before the court of appeal replaced the sentence, in 2010, with 12 months' imprisonment suspended for two years. Shortly after he was freed, amid calls by Tories for a change in the law to strengthen the rights of householders who tackle burglars, David Cameron said that intruders "leave their human rights outside". The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, said at the time that the current law was working well and did not need changing.
A Leicestershire police spokeswoman said: "A 35-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman were arrested in Melton on suspicion of GBH and four men aged 27, 23, 31 and 33 were arrested at Leicester Royal Infirmary on suspicion of aggravated burglary."