Red Eye, the principle in British law is that you have a right to defend yourself and/or other ppl to the maximum extent required for protection. You only have to show that you believed you were in danger to be justified in injuring or killing someone. And you can attack them if you believe you're in danger - they don't have to attack you first.

But you have to show that you reasonably believed you were in danger. In the case of Tony Martin, he surprised the kids, they ran and he shot them in the back several times. If the person is running away, you are not in danger - Guest's point that "they have the right to run away when confronted" is exactly right. And that's the reason why Tony Martin is in jail.

It would be different if he'd surprised the kids and they'd gone for him, or if he'd surprised them in a place where they had to get past him to get out. In that case, he could reasonably have made a case for believing he was in danger. But as it stands, he wasn't in any danger but shot them anyway, which makes it manslaughter. This was aggravated by the fact that he then left the kids to die instead of calling the police and ambulance, which is presumably why he was given such a long sentence.

Graham.