re: #80545
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/05/man-78-bailed-over-fatal-stabbing-of-suspected-burglar
Q&A
What is the law on self-defence?
A householder’s right to use force in self-defence when confronting a burglar in their home has been strengthened repeatedly in recent years.
Since 1967 it has been legal for anyone to use “reasonable” force to prevent crime or to apprehend an offender.
The controversy over the Norfolk farmer Tony Martin, who was jailed in 1999 for murder after shooting a teenage burglar as he fled, turned the legal definition into a hot political issue.
Martin was initially jailed for nine years but that was reduced to manslaughter on appeal and his sentence cut to three years.
The case provoked a series of legal reforms. The last Labour government enacted section 76 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which enshrined the common law of self defence into statute, permitting the use of reasonable force when a defendant is confronted in their home.
The coalition government introduced extra protections. The justice secretary, Chris Grayling, supported a further clause, which came into force in 2013, permitting householders to resort to “disproportionate force”.
That principle was tested by the case of Denby Collins at the high court in 2016. Collins allegedly broke into a home and was restrained by the householder in a headlock which left him in a coma.
A legal challenge brought by Collins’ relatives claimed the law was incompatible with the right to life as guaranteed by the European convention on human rights.
But the judges ruled that force was not necessarily unreasonable and unlawful “simply because it is disproportionate – unless it is grossly disproportionate”.