Farmer Tony Martin, the eccentric loner who shot dead a teenage burglar, was yesterday cleared of murder - but told he must spent at least another year in jail because there was "no excuse" for what he did.
The Court of Appeal reduced Martin's murder conviction to manslaughter through diminished responsibility and cut his life jail sentence to five years, making him eligible for parole in about 12 months.
The judges' decision not to free him immediately was condemned by his supporters.
But in a warning to those who believe Martin was justified in what he did, three judges headed by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, said: "We must make it clear that an extremely dangerous weapon cannot be used in the manner in which it was used by Mr Martin that night."
The farmer's fatal use of a pump-action shotgun was an "excessive" reaction, Lord Woolf said. "Martin used a firearm which he knew he was not entitled to have in a manner which was wholly unjustified.
"There can be no excuse for this, though we treat his responsibility as being reduced.
"Mr Martin was entitled to use reasonable force to protect himself and his home, but the jury were surely correct in coming to their judgment that he was not acting reasonably in shooting dead one of the intruders, who happened to be 16, and seriously injuring the other."
Martin's solicitor, Mr James Saunders, said later the farmer was "disappointed" that he had not been released but relieved he was no longer branded a murderer.
Mr Saunders said the case would now be taken to the House of Lords "to see if we can obtain justice for Tony Martin".
The appeal judges accepted new psychiatric evidence that Martin was suffering from a paranoid personality disorder when he shot Fred Barras (16) with a pump-action shotgun and wounded Brendon Fearon (now 31) at his remote farmhouse, Bleak House, near Emneth, Norfolk, on the night of August 20th, 1999.