By Dean Weingarten
In the early morning hours of 13 November, 2015, a British Farmer, Kenneth Hugill, shot a convicted burglar, Richard Stables, injuring him in the foot. Stables was mostly in a car on Hugill’s farm, at about 2:30 a.m. Hugill says the cars engine started revving up when he shot. Hugill had never been in trouble with the law. His trial ended yesterday, on 10 March, 2017.
The jury took 24 minutes to find Hugill not guilty of Grevious Bodily Harm, the offense that Hugill was charged with by police. From thedailymail.co.uk:
Farmer Kenneth Hugill, 83, has gone on trial for shooting a convicted burglar he thought was stealing diesel from his isolated home
A farmer who shot a convicted burglar he thought was stealing diesel from his farm cried outside court today after a jury took just 24 minutes to clear him of GBH.
Father-of-three Kenneth Hugill, 83, who had two hip replacements and a heart-bypass operation, was arrested, finger printed and forced to fund his own £30,000 defence after he shot Richard Stables, 44, in the foot outside his isolated farmhouse at Wilberfoss, near York.
‘I pulled the trigger because I thought that car was going to kill me.’
His son David, 50, said: ‘They (the police) told us they heard there had been a firearms offence and they were looking for hostages.
‘We were very shocked with their actions and they didn’t give us any explanation.
British citizens have the right to self defense. What they do not have is a right to arms. Mr. Hugill had been given his shotgun on his 21st birthday, by his parents, over 60 years ago.
The Police are still holding his shotgun. The judge said that it would be up to the chief constable to determine if Mr. Hugill’s license would be renewed.
