Pc dragged to death after feet ‘whipped from under him’
Police officer tells trial how his colleague Andrew Harper became entangled in rope attached to car
A POLICE officer had his feet “whipped from under him” by a tow rope before he was dragged to his death, a colleague told a court.
The desperate search for Pc Andrew Harper was shown on dashcam footage as he was attacked after attempting to apprehend quad bike thieves.
The 28-year-old Thames Valley Police officer was dragged for more than a mile after his feet became entangled in the rope attached to a Seat Toledo car.
Pc Harper was knocked unconscious, suffered catastrophic injuries and died at the scene on the evening of Aug 15 last year. The Seat driver, Henry Long, 18, and two 17-year-olds have admitted conspiring to steal the quad bike but have denied murder. Long, of Mortimer, Reading, has admitted manslaughter, which his co-accused deny.
Giving evidence in their trial, Pc Andrew Shaw said his crewmate got out of their patrol car when they spotted the Seat, which had been towing the quad bike.
He said: “I could see him running in the road. My first thought was he’s running after the car trying to get in it. It’s what he would have done.
“I thought he was trying to get to the open door, drag them out of the car.
“As the car accelerated, Pc Harper was standing there and he just appeared to fall back as if his feet had been whipped from under him and that’s pretty much the last I saw of him.
“It was so quick you don’t even have time to put your hands out to steady yourself.”
As he reacted to the fast-paced events, Pc Shaw said his biggest concern was that he did not reverse into his colleague.
A call handler had alerted the officers to a burglary in progress near Stanford Dingley in Berkshire, after 11pm on Aug 15 last year.
She relayed the report of “four masked men outside with weapons, pieces of wood, trying to break into the garage, trying to steal his quad bike”. In the radio transmissions played in court, Pc Harper responded: “We are with it, we are with it.”
Pc Shaw is heard saying: “My colleague Pc Harper got out of the vehicle, ran after the vehicle. I have now lost him.”
He is asked to confirm the location, before a communication from another officer, Pc Christopher Bushnell, states: “There is a body in the road, body in the road. Just fell out of the vehicle.”
Pc Shaw replies: “That’s probably Pc Harper. I’ve just found his stab vest in the road.”
Jurors were shown video footage from the dashboard of Pc Shaw’s car as it drove past bloodied streaks in the road.
It ended with a view of Pc Shaw stopping and rushing over to join an officer standing over Pc Harper, who was lying in the road.
Giving evidence, Pc Bushnell told how he spotted the Seat before Pc Harper became detached from the tow rope. He said the car looked “menacing” and initially he thought it was dragging a deer carcass.
Pc Bushnell became emotional as he said: “I was not sure what it was. After a short period of time after I started to turn the corner, I saw what was being towed behind the vehicle rolling, arms and legs. Just a bloody mess. I just assumed it was a deer.”
Pc Bushnell said he was forced to veer off the road when the Seat came
‘I saw what was being towed behind the vehicle rolling, arms and legs. Just a bloody mess. I just assumed it was a deer’
“straight at” him at one point. He told jurors: “I found it intimidating, daunting and it was dominating me.”
Describing the pursuit, he said: “It was like chasing a shadow. It had no lights. It was a country road.”
The officer went on to direct a police helicopter to a nearby caravan site where the Seat was located.
As he completed his evidence, the court was told that it was accepted by all parties that Pc Bushnell did not at any stage strike Pc Harper with his car.
Pc Shaw told jurors he had been a member of the Thames Valley force’s road policing proactive team since 2009.
The advanced police driver said he had known Pc Harper for about 18 months, adding that he had joined the team just six weeks earlier.