"Have-a-go" hero law to be reviewed

LONDON (Reuters) - The law on "have-a-go heroes" is to be reviewed to give more protection to citizens who use reasonable force when intervening against suspected criminals, Justice Secretary Jack Straw said on Thursday.

Straw -- who revealed he had personally weighed in against muggers and burglars four times -- is to ask officials to devise ways of giving people who are the victims of crime or who witness an offence the confidence to use reasonable force to stop and detain criminals.

The issue of self-defence has often been in the headlines since farmer Tony Martin was jailed for manslaughter for shooting dead an intruder at his Norfolk home in 1999.

Straw, a former Home Secretary, said that in 1980 he chased a burglar trying to break into a members' club in Blackburn and held him until police arrived.

He stepped into two incidents at the Oval Tube station, in south London, including one when he detained a man suspected of robbing a boy. In another case he chased a man who is believed to have assaulted a passenger.

In 1996, he chased a man who had robbed a member of the public and held him until police arrived.

He told BBC radio: "You have not got time in that situation to think: 'well, where does the balance lie, what is reasonable force?'

"I happen to believe that good citizens ... should, if they feel able, intervene."

He said there are very few cases where the good citizen ends up in court, and when they do it is rare for there to be an unfair verdict.