Many will be familiar with the old adage ‘an Englishman’s home is his castle’ – but what happens when homeowners feel they are coming under attack?
Anyone is allowed to use ‘reasonable force’ to protect themselves or others if a crime is taking place inside their home.
But what is considered ‘reasonable’ depends on the circumstances and homeowners have found themselves falling foul of the law for attacking an intruder even when they are no longer in danger.
Pre-planning a trap for criminals without involving the police could also land well-meaning homeowners in trouble.
In one of the most high-profile cases, Tony Martin, who died in February aged 80, killed burglar Fred Barras, 16 with a pump-action shotgun at his Norfolk home in August 1999.
He was initially convicted of murder, but the charge was later downgraded to manslaughter.
Similarly, retired RAC boss Richard Osborn-Brooks, 79, fatally stabbed burglar Henry Vincent, 37, after he broke into the pensioner’s south-east London home in 2018.
It was later ruled that Mr Osborn-Brooks had acted ‘lawfully’, but he and his wife were forced to flee their home of 40 years when associates of Vincent threatened reprisals.
So what determines if a homeowner has acted ‘lawfully’ or gone beyond ‘reasonable force’ – and what of those who decide to take the law into their own hands?
A ‘prank’ that turned violent
Jordan Tonkinson became enraged when two teenagers kicked his front door before running off.
When he eventually caught up with the culprits, the homeowner from Willenhall, West Midlands punched them in the face multiple times.
The youngsters, who were part of a group of half a dozen children, had been playing ‘door knock run’ just moments before Tonkinson gave chase and dragged them back towards his home, last December.
He is then said to have lined them up and ordered them to apologise before launching several punches at their faces, Birmingham Mail reports.
Tonkinson also ordered one of the teenagers to hand over their phone – and threatened to kill them if they did not.
After receiving the phone, he threw it to the ground and smashed it.
The boys eventually escaped, with one suffering a cut eye and the other cracked teeth, and informed police.
Tonkinson was later arrested on suspicion of assault and robbery, which he initially denied.
He went on to admit the offences and was sentenced to four years at Wolverhampton Crown Court on June 2.
Fence post attack
George Kovacs was landed in prison after assaulting a 17-year-old with a fence post and pole, as well as threatening to kill him after believing the youth was ‘up to no good’.
The teenager suffered a broken arm and wrist, which required surgery, following the violent assault inflicted by Kovacs, who has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison.
Kovacs confronted the teenager and his friend, after spotting them enter an abandoned building in the Waunfawr area of Gwynedd, north Wales, in December 2022.
Having seen the pair as he drove past, the married father stopped his vehicle, got out the car and shouted ‘What the f*** are you boys doing here?,’ North Wales Live reported.
Caernarfon Crown Court heard that one of the teenagers, Kian Williams, who is now an adult, apologised but Kovacs is said to have continued ‘ranting’ at them.
Kovacs picked up a fence post and struck Mr Williams with such force that the post snapped.
He is also said to have grabbed him, pushed him up against a wall and thrown a number of punches.
Looking to flee from the property, the teenagers began heading for the footpath, only to see Kovacs picking up a pole and chasing them.
The enraged man is said to have struck Mr Williams to the legs and back, but the blows were cushioned by his rucksack.
Kovacs told the teenagers: ‘I’m going to kill you… come back again and I will slice you.’
In his defence, Kovacs said he was aware of antisocial behaviour in the area and was defending his property.
But Judge Timothy Petts told him: ‘What you did went far beyond anything you reasonably thought you could do to protect that property.’
Kovacs, who has five previous convictions for eight offences including weapons offences but none for violence, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding.
He was sentenced earlier this week to 33 months and is expected to serve up to half of that before being released on licence. Kovacs was also handed a 10-year restraining order banning him from contacting his victim.
A noisy rabble led to assault
Ricky Spence, 33, from Blyth, Northumberland, saw red when confronting teenagers outside his home in Blyth, Northumberland in 2022.
Violence erupted when one of the group kicked his gate and he chased them in his car.
He then cornered and repeatedly punched one member of the group, despite the youth telling him he had not been responsible.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that the teenager suffered bruising to his right eye, pain and swelling around his jaw, pain and reddening to the top of his head and small lacerations inside his mouth, Chronicle Live reported.
At the time of the offence, Spence was on a 16-month suspended sentence imposed in April 2021 for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assaulting an emergency worker.
Oil and gas rig worker Spence, who has three previous convictions, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Kelly Clarke, defending, said: ‘He was not looking for trouble.
‘He said he should have walked away and phoned the police and not reacted in the way he did. He is extremely sorry for his actions.’
Burglar chased down and caught
A brave homeowner chased down a prolific burglar who broke into her property and stole her car keys.
The woman awoke around 4am on April 8 when she saw Matthew Gilligan walking out the front door of her house in Darlington, County Durham.
She chased him down the road and demanded he returned the items he had stolen, which included her handbag.
Around 15 minutes later, Gilligan was stopped by police and searched, with officers discovering he was carrying a car key, a Mazda service book, a car air freshener and charging cables, which he had also taken from the woman’s vehicle.
The 42-year-old was arrested and charged with burglary, attempted burglary, theft from a vehicle and vehicle interference.
He admitted the offences and was jailed for two years and four months at Teesside Crown Court last July.
The pensioner with plenty of bottle
A courageous 74-year-old man confronted Shamus Doyle when he heard him break into his semi-detached home during the early hours.
In a show of ‘incredible bravery’, the pensioner smashed a glass bottle over Doyle’s head and then chased him off, a court heard.
Though Doyle fled the property in Newark, Nottinghamshire, last February, he reappeared in the man’s back garden a short time later with a brick.
He threatened to attack the elderly homeowner, but when he was told the police were on the way he threw the masonry through the living room window and again ran off.
Officers found Doyle nearby with a bloodied head, but he attempted to deny having any involvement with the burglary.
The thug, who needed hospital treatment for his injuries, tried to insist he had got into a fight at a park. Yet Doyle’s blood was not only found at the pensioner’s home, but CCTV also showed him in the area at the time of the break-in, Nottingham Crown Court heard.
Doyle, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to burglary, criminal damage and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour to cause a person harassment. He was jailed for two years and 174 days.
The law states homeowners can use ‘reasonable force’ against intruders inside their homes.
That can include protecting yourself ‘in the heat of the moment’ and using ‘something to hand as a weapon’, guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service states.
The burglary that turned deadly
A crowbar-carrying burglar was stabbed to death after he broke into the home of a drug dealer.
Luke Allan, 28, was convicted in October of fatally assaulting Andrew Ross, 52, in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, in February 2023.
Andrew, whose face had been partially covered by a snood, had burst into Allan’s flat, where it is claimed he took money, drugs and contemplated taking a dog, The Sun reported.
But it was outside the property where an eight-minute ordeal turned to tragedy.
Allan, accompanied by his brother Ethan Carlyle, 22, claimed Andrew had threatened to kill the pair and would be ‘taking their f*****g eyes out’.
Moments later, Andrew suffered 18 stab wounds to the head and body.
Allan denied murder, but a jury at the High Court in Aberdeen found him guilty.
Carlyle was cleared of murder, but was found guilty of assault.
The trial before Judge Graeme Buchanan earlier heard Andrew had partially covered his face with a snood before he forced his way into Allan’s home, sparking an eight-minute ordeal that ended in death.
Defence lawyers said Andrew threatened to kill Allan and Carlyle
It was claimed he took cash and drugs as he screamed: ‘We will take whatever the f**k we want.’
Allan was jailed for life and told he would have to serve at least 17 years before he can apply for parole.
Carlyle was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and one year’s supervision.
Vigilante fathers ‘here to help everyone’
A group of vigilante fathers told they were getting together to ‘police’ the area where teenager Leo Ross was murdered earlier this year .
The men say they were sickened by the state of Hall Green in Birmingham after the killing of 12-year-old Leo Ross, who was stabbed on January 21 and later died in hospital.
They also say that the area has become lawless and under-policed and point to the fact the teenager charged with Leo’s murder was also wanted for four serious assaults against women in the area.
Organiser Reece Chisholm, 37, said during an interview in February: ‘We won’t be using violence. All we want to do is what the police are not doing.
‘They told us this area would be better policed after Leo’s murder so how come there’s a man masturbating at the bottom of Chinn Brook Road, scaring women and getting away with it.’
A post about the flasher triggered Mr Chisholm, who describes himself as a reformed criminal who now runs a gardening company, to put out a call for other men in the area to join him on patrols.
‘Calling all men in the hall green area message me please let’s get a team of us and do wot we do best look after the vulnerable people and the children within our area.’
He soon found himself at the head of a Dad’s Army and is confident they will grow in numbers.
He said: ‘I want this to be done properly. We won’t be racist, we have men of all faiths and colours and I have been in touch with a local councillor to tell him what we intend to do.
Retired RAC boss Richard Osborn-Brooks had lived a quiet life with his wife Maureen on a suburban street in Hither Green, south-east London, for 42 years.
He was described as a ‘traditional Englishman’ and was popular among neighbours after contributing towards a scheme to reduce burglary in the area.
But the couple’s peaceful retirement came to a crashing end in 2018, when two men broke into their £500,000 home as they slept.
When Mr Osborn-Brooks went downstairs to see what was happening, he was shoved into his kitchen while the men went upstairs where Maureen, said to suffer from dementia, was alone.
A struggle ensued in which burglar Henry Vincent suffered fatal stab wounds.
The life of Mr and Mrs Osborn-Brooks would never be the same.
In the following weeks, the clan of the career criminal who died threatened reprisals. Associates of Vincent came to the street and laid flowers, pictures, cards and balloons.
Mr and Mrs Osborn-Brooks quickly moved out of the home where they had lived for more than 40 years over fears of revenge attacks.
Speaking in 2018, a friend said: ‘It’s not safe. He’s got what happened that night on his conscience for the rest of his life. He’s never going to forget that he’s killed someone. He’s not a violent person. He’s a really nice run of the mill guy.’
The case sparked a row over the rights of people to protect themselves in their own homes.
Local Neighbourhood Watch member Sylbourne Sydial said: ‘A man should be able to defend his home. It’s not as if to say he had a cutlass or a machete or a knife. Your home is your castle and I believe your neighbourhood is your kingdom.’
In 2019, an inquest ruled that Mr Osborn-Brooks had acted lawfully.
‘This team will only escalate and I will push it to get bigger and bigger. No violence will be happening.
‘We will make citizens’ arrests with reasonable force. The police won’t come out so I will put them in my car and take them to the station myself.
‘There will be groups of us at different times and on different days.
‘After 8pm every evening, the elderly people can’t walk the streets – they feel vulnerable.
‘If the elderly know there are a group of lads from the area looking out for them then they will feel safer.
‘We will knock on older people’s doors earlier in the day and introduce ourselves.
‘We will have name badges identifying us, we’ll have body cameras for our own protection, walkie-talkies.’
The area was recently ranked in a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report as one of the worst areas in the country for child poverty – with 55 per cent of children affected.
Mr Chisholm said: ‘When I was a kid, we had a community centre where we’d all play pool and football out the back.
‘We had Solihull Lodge, another centre for kids. These places are derelict now.
‘Things are worse. We need community centres to help us police the kids and residential schools for disabled children so parents get a break.
‘Hall Green is not the worst place in Birmingham but it is going that way. We don’t want it getting like Sparkhill, Sparkbrook or Handsworth.
‘We have to protect the vulnerable people in our area.’
One of those locals Reece and his team would like to protect is Sandra, not her real name.
The 40-year-old mother-of-three was left facially scarred for life by her ex-partner who was given five years in jail.
Now, he’s out and continues to pose a threat to women and children.
She said: ‘I had a knock on the door from the police asking questions because he has a new partner now who has a daughter who keeps running away from home.
‘This little girl, who’s 11, went into the local shop and told them she didn’t want to go home because her mum’s partner keeps coming into her room and touching me.
‘Her grandma says he has been taking her to drug dens.
‘He’s a known predator. He was caught with a 13-year-old girl in his car only recently.
‘I have been reporting that man for 14 years now. He’s ruined my face, he’s targeting little girls and he’s still out there.
‘The police and social services know everything but they don’t do anything. Apparently he’s got a tag on his foot to do with alcohol. It’s a joke.’
Sandra was also allegedly groomed by an older Asian man when she was 13 and he was 22. She ended up having two children by him.
Mr Chisholm said he had previously been involved with a paedophile hunting group called Innocence Matters.
‘We caught four or five and the police did what they had to do but only one got a prison sentence because he’d done it five times before.’
He added: ‘Compared to when I was growing up there are a lot more thefts happening. The police policed the streets better in the 90s and noughties than they do now.
‘Even though they have more technology now, there is just less of them.
‘You get a man who walks in a pub and asks for the till, commits a low grade robbery and he’ll get four and a half years and yet you get a man who nonces and rapes and will get a suspended sentence.
‘Things have got to change. I am not against anyone, I’m here to help everyone.’
What is reasonable force and will the law protect me?
Anyone can use reasonable force to protect themselves or others, or to carry out an arrest or to prevent crime. You are not expected to make fine judgments over the level of force you use in the heat of the moment.
What amounts to disproportionate force?
The force you use must always be reasonable in the circumstances as you believe them to be. It can be disproportionate if you are acting in extreme circumstances in the heat of the moment and don’t have a chance to think about exactly how much force would be necessary to repel the intruder.
Do I have to wait to be attacked?
No, not if you are in your own home and in fear for yourself or others. In those circumstances the law does not require you to wait to be attacked before using defensive force yourself.
What if the intruder dies?
If you have acted in reasonable self-defence, as described above, and the intruder dies you will still have acted lawfully. Indeed, there are several such cases where the householder has not been prosecuted.
However, if you further hurt or kill someone and were not acting in reasonable self-defence you would be acting with very excessive and gratuitous force and could be prosecuted.
What if I chase them as they run off?
This situation is different as you are no longer acting in self-defence and so the same degree of force may not be reasonable. However, you are still allowed to use reasonable force to recover your property and make a citizen’s arrest.