Jailed farmer Tony Martin is considering a High Court challenge to a Parole Board decision not to grant him early release.

Martin's lawyer James Saunders said he would examine the possibility of seeking a judicial review of the decision, made on Thursday.

"I just think a man who has been disappointed in this way is entitled to see whether he has got any legal redress," he said.

The farmer, jailed for shooting dead a teenage burglar at his isolated Norfolk home in 1999, was earlier said to be "very depressed" by the decision.

Fred Barras was killed in 1999

Mr Saunders said it was "not infrequent" for prisoners to challenge the Parole Board.

"I can't make any decision until I've had the opportunity to study the Parole Board's decision in detail and that won't be until next week."

Martin, 58, of Emneth Hungate, near Wisbech, is scheduled for release from Highpoint Prison in Suffolk on 28 July.

His local MP said earlier that Martin was "very depressed" at his failure to win early release.

Henry Bellingham, the MP for North West Norfolk, said: "He is very concerned that a probation officer did make some unhelpful remarks about the fact he is not showing remorse."

"He knows he should have had parole.

"We all know he should have had parole."

Householders' rights

Martin has always claimed he acted in self-defence when he shot dead 16-year-old Fred Barras, from Newark, Nottinghamshire, and injured another man with an illegally-held pump-action shotgun in 1999.

They had broken into his near-derelict farmhouse Bleak House, where Martin had removed part of a staircase to hinder intruders.

Martin's conviction for murder in 2000 caused massive controversy, and raised issues about rural crime and the rights of householders to protect their property.

On appeal, Martin's murder conviction was reduced to manslaughter and his sentence cut to five years.