Pc Andrew Harper's teen killers jailed for total of 42 years on manslaughter charges

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Three teenagers who dragged PC Andrew Harper to his death in a “wicked” and reckless attempt to evade capture by police have been jailed for a total of 42 years.

Henry Long, 19, was behind the wheel of a Seat Toledo with 18-year-olds Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers in the passenger seats as they pulled Pc Harper down a Berkshire country lane for more than a mile.

The newlywed officer had been called out to reports of a burglary in progress and bravely confronted the thieves, but his feet became entangled in a tow rope as they sped away from the scene.

The teenagers argued it was a “freak” incident and were acquitted of murder, but today faced sentencing for the manslaughter of Pc Harper as well as a conspiracy to steal the quad bike.

Mr Justice Edis warned Long was a dangerous and “disturbing” offender who saw nothing wrong with putting police and other road users’ lives at risk, jailing him for 16 years. He sentenced Cole and Bowers to 13 years each.

Pc Andrew Harper died in August last year 
PA

“You killed a talented and brave young police officer who was going above and beyond duty in order to provide a public service, and you did so by deliberately deciding to expose any police officer who got in your way to a risk of death," he said.

“You decided your freedom to commit crime was more important than his life.”

The judge said the three teenagers had hatched a plan to get away from police “by any means necessary”, and must have known something was attached to the tow rope.

“They drove on not knowing or caring what it was they were dragging”, he said. “They worked together as a team to enable them to escape, and they all knew this would require desperately dangerous driving if it was to succeed.”

Ordering that all three serve two thirds of their sentences before being released, the judge added: “A person who kills a police officer, having decided quite deliberately to behave in this way, commits as serious a case of manslaughter as it’s possible to envisage.”

His widow Lissie gave a powerful victim impact statement
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In court today, Pc Harper’s heartbroken widow Lissie broke down in tears as she described the “indescribable trauma” she has endured.

“My husband was brutally killed four weeks after our wedding day”, she said. “My life often feels bleak, hopeless, irreparable.”

She told the court: “Not only did these men take this man from me, they took our future too. They took more than one life away that day, they stole the person I used to be.

“Every ounce of beautiful peace gone.”

She added the loss of her husband has left her “broken, distraught, beaten, a void, an empty shell”, saying: “Andrew will never grace us with his smile – his compassion and selfless generosity.

Pc Harper's mother Deborah Adlam at court
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“I will spend every day for the rest of my life with a hole that will never be filled. I search around for words to express my heartbreak, but each word is inadequate.”

Speaking outside the court after sentencing, Detective Superintendent Stuart Blaik said he welcomed the sentencing but that it would never bring "closure" for Pc Harper's family.

He said: "Today I welcome the judge’s sentencing remarks. They were fully reflective of the seriousness of the offence."

He added: "But no sentence will ever be enough to bring Andrew Harper back. We often talking about the closure of legal proceedings. I know that that can never be the case for Andrew’s family."

Referring to the defendants, he said: "These are three people who I don’t think have ever shown an ounce of genuine remorse or contritions for their action

Aerial view of the scene at Ufton Lane, near Sulhamstead, Berkshire, where Pc Andrew Harper died
PA

“These men (the defendants) represented self-interest, greed and utter recklessness.”

Pc Harper died on August 15, 2019, after responding to a 999 call in Stanford Dingley, Berkshire.

He had been four hours past the supposed end of his shift when homeowner Peter Wallis reported an attempt to steal his £10,000 Honda quadbike.

Pc Harper came face-to-face with the thieves and tried to grab hold of Cole, but became entangled in the tow rope that had been used to pull the quad bike.

The judge found that the occupants of the car had not initially realised that a person was attached to the rope, but knew they were dragging something and when PC Harper’s body was finally dislodged they would have known a person was badly injured.

He said Long was guilty of “truly terrifying driving” in a bid to flee from police, going so fast on the country lanes that a qualified police driver was unable to safely reconstruct the journey.

Pc Harper’s colleagues found the officer’s uniform strewn along the country lane before finally reaching his body, and he died at the scene.

Rossano Scamardella QC, representing Long, insisted the driver had “accepted responsibility” for his role in the officer’s death, and had pleaded guilty to manslaughter before the trial.

Addressing media reports of the killers behaving “badly during the trial, he said: “We do not agree (he) behaved badly during the trial. What we do remember from the trial is Henry Long’s evidence about remorse he felt. We would suggest that remorse is genuine.”

Cole and Bowers were caught on camera laughing as they left court following the verdicts, but their lawyers sought to explain that the moment captured was unrelated to what had happened in court.

However the judge said he believed talk of remorse is “made up”, adding that Long had said when arrested: “I don’t give a f*** about any of this.”

At the start of proceedings today, the judge also sought to squash rumours that the jury had been pressured into acquitting the defendants of murder.

He said security measures had been put in place to protect the jurors amid a fear they would be targeted by associates of the defendants, but said there was no evidence the fear was realised.

Mrs Harper has also called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to intervene and force a murder retrial. But the judge said he saw no evidence that the case had been mishandled.

Cole and Bowers denied but were convicted of manslaughter.

All three defendants, from near Reading, admitted conspiracy to steal and were acquitted of murder.

A fourth defendant, Thomas King, 21, from Basingstoke, admitted conspiracy to steal a quad bike and was jailed today for two years. He had not been present when PC Harper died.

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