PC Harper’s widow
Please back my fight for justice... and for Andrew
THE widow of slain PC Andrew Harper today pleads with Mirror readers to back her campaign for killers of emergency services heroes to get mandatory life sentences.
Lissie Harper had been married for just four weeks when teenage thugs killed her husband and she wants them to pay the price.
She said: “It could be 10 years or less and those who did this to us could be out on the streets living the same sort of criminal lifestyle whereas Andrew’s life has been robbed from him. It’s not right.
“In the hard times I still talk to Andrew. I tell him that I miss him and I love him. That’s what’s spurring me on. I’m doing this for him.”
PC Harper was killed when three
yobs dragged him behind their speeding car for more than a mile.
Devastated Lissie, 29, was dealt a further blow when the trio responsible – driver Henry Long, 19, and Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, both 18 – were cleared of murder and sentenced for manslaughter instead.
It means they could be out in as little as seven and eight years, with time off for good behaviour.
Now, after enduring what would have been her first wedding anniversary and the first anniversary of his death, Lissie wants to right these wrongs.
Ahead of meeting with Home Secretary Priti Patel next month, she’s asking Mirror readers to back her petition for Harper’s Law, which would mean an automatic life sentence for anyone committing a crime that leads to the death of an emergency services worker. Asked if she was angry at jurors for their verdicts, Lissie said: “I feel very let down. Somehow they didn’t see what the whole rest of the country could see.
“But I’m putting all my energy into Harper’s Law so that it doesn’t happen again, to someone else.”
Some may argue the proposed law is a knee-jerk call for Americanstyle “eye for an eye” justice.
But Lissie, backed by the Police Federation of England and Wales, stresses it’s about valuing heroes who put their lives on the line.
Conservative MP Mike Penning, a former Policing Minister, called the campaign “inspiring” and added: “I really think it will have massive support across the country and in Parliament.”
Labour MP Andrew Gwynne, a member of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “Let’s honour Andrew and so many others by passing this law change.”
Lissie says her husband might be surprised at how loudly she is speaking out.
She was once so timid about public speaking, she had a friend read out
I’m putting all my energy into Harper’s Law so it doesn’t happen again to someone else
LISSIE HARPER WIDOW OF KILLED PC ANDREW HARPER
her wedding speech. Now she speaks with great dignity, and is open about the difficulty she has coping with grief.
The events of August 15 last year caused national outrage.
The sweethearts, who had dated since they were 16, had celebrated their fairytale wedding at Oxfordshire’s Ardington House on July 18.
They had their one-bed cottage on the banks of the Thames in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, a stone’s throw from their families.
They were planning to start a family of their own after a belated honeymoon to the Maldives, planned for just a few days later. But with one 999 call all those dreams disappeared. Thames Valley PC Harper was four hours into overtime.
At 10pm he rang Lissie to say he loved her and to talk about her planned new design business. Just before he was due to sign off, a call came in about a stolen quad bike in Stanford Dingley, Berkshire.
As PC Harper tried to stop the thieves, they sped off in their Seat Toledo.
His feet got caught in a tow rope hanging out of its boot but they did not stop.
The injuries that killed PC Harper left him unrecognisable. Lissie already has 500,000 signatures on her Harper’s Law petition with Change.org.
Petitions have to be discussed by Parliament if they reach 100,000 but Lissie wants more to ensure her upcoming crunch meeting with Priti Patel goes well. She said: “I would really appreciate the Mirror‘s loyal readers adding their voice to my vital campaign by signing my petition. And together we will achieve Harper’s Law.”
One of Andrew’s few bugbears about his dream job was the soft justice his collars sometime got, Lissie says.
And his family are backing Lissie all the way. She lived with her parents for nine months after Andrew’s death and only returned to their cottage in May.
She woke on their wedding anniversary in July to see his toothbrush still in its holder, his clothes still in the wardrobe but only his ashes in a wooden box for company.
Lissie had some positive news when she heard the offenders’ sentences are to be reviewed by the Attorney General, who felt they were too lenient.
But at the same time Cole and Bowers are appealing that their sentences were too long, which Lissie describes as “quite ludicrous”.
Speaking on Wednesday, she added: “They need to be punished for what they’ve done and what they’ve taken.
“I don’t think they understand quite what that is, but actually, it’s immense.”