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unintelligent, but professional criminals”, and said none of them had “shown anything resembling remorse”.

The judge said Long’s feelings were clear from his comment on being charged with murder when he said he did not “give a f***”.

JUSTICE

The contrast between the “selfinterest, greed and utter recklessness” of the killers and the brave and selfless actions of PC Harper is stark.

Long told the trial his father Carl and grandfather were career thieves and he had followed in their footsteps after leaving school at 12.

At the time of the killing, Long was 18 and subject to a three-month conditional discharge after being convicted in June of being drunk on a public highway. Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay said he also had convictions for battery aged 16 and threatening or abusive behaviour.

In a conversation with a community support officer in July 2018 – ruled inadmissible at the trial – Long said: “You can’t touch me now ‘cos I’ve passed my driving test and police try to stop me, I will ram them.”

The trio shared a connection to the Four Houses Corner travellers site in Berkshire. Bowers had racially abused a police officer just four months before killing PC Harper.

Mr Polnay said he was given a referral order in April 2019, for using language that was “highly offensive”.

Bowers left school at the age of 11 and had convictions for criminal damage aged 14, sexual assault aged 16 and possession of an offensive weapon, for which he received a youth rehabilitation order.

Det Supt Stuart Blaik said in an interview: “These defendants have family connections to organised crime groups.”

Outside court, he added: “Today we have seen justice for Andrew Harper and his family. “These men [defendants] represented selfinterest, greed and utter recklessness. These are three people who I do not believe have ever shown an ounce of genuine remorse or contrition for their actions, and who did their best to frustrate the police investigation.” Photographs from an early court appearance in Reading just a month after the killing showed the trio joking around.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw told the court: “They regard themselves, not Andrew Harper, as the unlucky victims of this case.

“These three young men have absolutely no understanding of the damage they have done.”

Justice Edis took the unusual step of telling the court that “to the best of my knowledge” there was no truth to claims the jury may have been subject to “improper pressure”.

Mrs Harper had called on the Government to order a retrial in the hope of getting a murder conviction.

Long and Bowers, both of Mortimer, Berks, and Cole, of Bramley, Hants, each denied murder and were acquitted. Long had pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Thomas King, 21, of Bramley, earlier admitted conspiring to steal the quad bike. He was jailed for two years.

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