Wipe those sickening smirks off their faces
New hope for PC’s widow as appeal could see killers kept in jail for longer
THE widow of PC Andrew Harper last night said she hoped to wipe the ‘sickening smirks’ of his killers’ faces as it emerged their sentences are to be reviewed.
Lissie Harper told of her joy after the Attorney General referred the case to the Appeal Court, saying heinous crimes should be punished with ‘the greatest severity’.
She said the jail terms the teenagers received for manslaughter were not justice, because two could be freed after serving fewer than nine years.
‘This is a positive development,’ she added. ‘Nothing of course will bring Andrew back but the potential for longer sentences and any opportunity to help wipe those sickening smirks off their faces is good news.’
PC Harper was dragged to his death by a getaway car for more than a mile on country roads after he tried to stop a group of thieves.
The 28-year-old Thames Valley officer got caught in a tow strap attached to the back of the car driven by Henry Long, 19, as he and Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both 18, fled the scene of a quad bike theft in Berkshire last August.
Attorney General Suella Braverman was asked to review the case amid outrage after Long was sentenced to 16 years and Bowers and Cole to 13. They were convicted of manslaughter but cleared of murder at the Old Bailey last month.
When they were cleared of the higher charge the smirking trio exchanged a backslapping embrace and cheers. Now Mrs Braverman has asked the Court of Appeal to look at the sentences, which she considers unduly lenient.
‘This was a horrific crime which resulted in the death of a muchrespected police officer while he was on duty, protecting his community,’ she said.
‘Attacks made against emergency workers will not be tolerated and offenders should be punished with the greatest severity for such heinous crimes.’
Mrs Harper said ‘police officers need to be properly protected by the judicial system’. The 29-yearold designer has launched a campaign for a change to the law to see anyone convicted of killing an emergency worker jailed for a whole life sentence.
She said: ‘The sentences for Andrew’s killers did not match their heinous crime. It was not justice and it needs to be addressed. Police officers need to be properly protected by the judicial system.
‘And there must be appropriate punishments for those who would kill police officers. We now await the outcome with interest and in the meantime we will continue to campaign for Harper’s Law, which is calling for those who kill emergency services workers to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
‘The people of our country are unhappy with the way we deal with criminals.
‘I’ve been swamped with messages and words of agreement over the despicable outcome following the trial.
‘We all want change, not a small minority of people, but thousands and thousands of people hope to see this law accomplished.’ More than 350,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Harper’s Law.
On Wednesday, Bowers and Cole lodged their applications with the Court of Appeal seeking permission to challenge their convictions and sentences in a move described by PC Harper’s mother Debbie Adlam as a ‘kick in the stomach’.
Their case is likely to take place on the same day as Court of Appeal judges consider whether their sentences should be increased at a hearing later this year. Yesterday Mrs Adlam said: ‘The whole nation stands with us in outrage at the sentences handed down to my son’s killers.
‘We can only hope that a fairer outcome is reached by the Court of Appeal to deliver the justice that Andrew deserves.
‘As a family, we will not stop campaigning until our blue light heroes are safer as they step out each and every day to protect us as a society.’
Yesterday PC Harper’s father Phil, 55, said the proposed law was needed to protect the backbone of the country – ‘doctors, nurses, paramedics to firefighters, prison officers and of course police officers, many of whom have been attacked, injured or killed’.