Salute the heroines who never wanted to be one
JUST over a year ago it was, that PC Andrew Harper’s young bride received that late-night knock on the door to bring her the news that would blight her life for ever.
She’d been married to him barely four weeks when she learned her hero husband had been dragged to his death behind the car of thieves he’d tried to stop.
In those unbearable 12 months, the unwavering fortitude and determination she has shown have been awe-inspiring. She watched as his killers — Henry Long, 19, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both 18 — showed no remorse in court. She had to witness their sickening smirks when they were convicted not of murder but manslaughter.
The short sentences they received were a crippling blow to her, making a mockery of justice. And now, this week, Lissie, 29, discovered that her husband’s killers had received a staggering £465,000 in legal aid.
Injustice has been heaped on injustice in a way that would cause most of us — in her words — ‘to buckle beneath the grief’. But not her. She has only grown stronger.
Yes, she has despaired. But from that despair has arisen the passion and courage that have enabled her to fight with eloquence and persuasion for Harper’s Law, meaning callous killers like her husband’s would be jailed for life.
And she’s not the only one. There is a gallery of women who, through an abiding sense of injustice, have rallied and fought for those they love and have lost.
Stephen Lawrence’s mother Doreen and Harry Dunn’s mum Charlotte refuse to give up their search for justice. Then there’s Sarah Payne’s mother Sara, who ushered in Sarah’s Law, so every sex offender is placed on a register, after her eight-year-old girl was abducted and murdered.
Their campaigns have been forceful, focused and driven with total conviction. They have changed laws, embarrassed prime ministers and presidents and left the world a better place.
When we saw the stricken young widow Lissie Harper weeping after the death of her new husband at his funeral, we could never have anticipated her inner strength. But no one will underestimate her now.