The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Policeman was dragged along road for a mile
PC Andrew Harper was killed in ‘truly shocking circumstances’, court told
Police officer Andrew Harper was dragged for more than a mile along a road and killed in “truly shocking circumstances”, a court has heard.
Prosecutor Brian Altman QC told the Old Bailey on Monday that the alleged murder of the 28-year-old constable was “a completely senseless killing”.
PC Harper died from multiple injuries when he was pulled along behind a car after responding to the reported theft of a quad bike from a home near the village of Sulhamstead in Berkshire.
One witness mistakenly thought he had seen a bloodied deer attached to the car before realising it was a man being dragged along, the jury heard.
Henry Long, 18, from Mortimer, Reading, and two 17-year-olds, who cannot be named for legal reasons, all deny murdering the Thames Valley Police officer in August last year.
Mr Altman told jurors: “Late at night, on Thursday August 15 of last year, in Berkshire, 28-year-old Andrew Harper, a serving police constable of Thames Valley Police, was killed in truly shocking circumstances.
“With his ankles caught in a strap that was trailing behind a car being driven at speed along a country lane, he was dragged for over a mile along the road surface, swung from side to side like a pendulum in an effort to dislodge him, losing items of his police uniform along the way, with the rest of his uniform being quite literally ripped and stripped from his body.”
Long has admitted manslaughter, which the younger boys deny, and all three have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal a quad bike.
PC Harper, known as “Harps” to his colleagues, was part of Thames Valley’s Roads Policing Unit, and had been due to work a 10am to 7pm shift that day.
He was still on duty with crew mate PC Andrew Shaw at 11.17pm, and they were driving in an unmarked police BMW fitted with emergency lights.
The court heard that the officers were driving along a country lane, Lambdens Hill, on their way to the call when they met a Seat Toledo, driven by Long, coming the other way.
One of the 17-year-olds was in the passenger seat, and the other was riding the quad bike being towed behind the car, attached to the boot lid hinge with a crane strap that formed a loop.
As the cars met, the teenager on the quad dismounted, disconnected the strap and tried unsuccessfully to get into the passenger door of the Seat, as Long began to drive off.
PC Shaw turned the BMW’s emergency lights on, and the teenager ran to jump through the back passenger window of the Seat.
As PC Harper tried to stop him, the officer’s feet were encircled in the crane strap and he was dragged along as Long drove off.