Brave Pc killed in line of duty, court told

A BRAVE young police officer was killed “in the line of duty” in “truly shocking circumstances” as he attempted to stop three teenagers from stealing a quad bike, a trial has heard.

Pc Andrew Harper was responding to a reported theft four hours past the end of his shift when his ankles got caught in a tow rope attached to the suspects’ getaway car.

He was dragged for more than a mile on a winding country road with his uniform gradually stripped from his body.

Such were the extent of Pc Harper’s injuries that an eyewitness said he thought the suspects were towing a deer carcass behind their vehicle.

The 28-year-old policeman had become dislodged by the time his colleague, Pc Andrew Shaw, came across him “barely alive”. Pc Harper died at the scene a short time later.

A pathologist’s report found Pc Harper suffered “a very severe injury to the brain” which is “likely to have rendered him unconscious” after his head struck the ground.

The Old Bailey trial heard Henry Long, 19, drove at an average speed of 42.5mph along the Admoor Lane in Berkshire, near Reading, on the evening of August 15 last year, in such a fashion that the stricken officer was “swung side-to-side like a pendulum in an effort to dislodge him”.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw QC said: “It was a senseless killing of a young police officer in the line of duty, a young man who was doing no more than his job.”

Pc Harper and his crewmate responded to the reported theft despite it being well beyond the end of their shift. Mr Laidlaw said: “Going beyond the call of duty, as it were, would cost Andrew Harper his life.”

Mr Long has admitted the manslaughter of the Thames Valley Police officer, but has denied intending to kill him.

The trial continues and is due to last up to five weeks.