Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Laughing killers
I’m shocked and appalled
passed my driving test and if police try to stop me I will ram them.” It can also be revealed the jury had to be given special protection amid fears they would be threatened by people linked to the defendants. A female juror was discharged last week after smiling at the killers, mouthing “goodbye boys” as she left the court.
Long, who left school aged 12, had previous convictions for battery, being drunk and disorderly and shoplifting. When he was
PC Andrew Harper’s widow says she is “utterly appalled” that his killers have been cleared of murder.
Lissie Harper, 29, wept in court as the thugs celebrated being convicted of manslaughter.
Henry Long, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers giggled throughout the trial even as gruesome evidence was heard.
Lissie, married to Andrew for a month when he was dragged to his death last August, told reporters: “I honestly thought I would be addressing you after a very different verdict.
“I am for the second time in the space of one year utterly shocked and appalled.”
Lissie added the killers face a “meagre number of years” in jail.
She said she waited “many agonising months” hoping justice would be done, adding: “[We] will spend the rest of our days missing him, loving him.
“Andrew was taken from us on that horrendous night. His life was stolen and the lives of his family and friends altered for ever.
“The way Andrew was robbed of his life we all know to be barbaric and inexplicable.”