Priti Patel to meet Harper widow over police killers

PRITI Patel will meet the widow of PC Andrew Harper to discuss proposals for tougher sentences for criminals who kill a police officer.

Lissie Harper (below) is campaigning for ‘vital and urgent’ changes to the law which will mean anyone who kills a policeman – or any other emergency services worker – spends the rest of their life behind bars.

Now the Home Office has contacted her to arrange talks with the Home Secretary and Justice Secretary Robert Buckland to discuss ‘Harper’s Law’.

‘We don’t just need warm words, we need action,’ said Mrs Harper. ‘Our justice system is broken, and we need Harper’s Law to help fix it.’

She added: ‘At the moment the sentences are just inadequate.’

Mrs Harper and her 28-year-old husband had been married for four weeks when he was killed after responding to a burglary in Sulham stead, Berkshire, in August last year.

Two of his killers – Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both 18 – last week lodged applications with the Court of Appeal to challenge their manslaughter convictions and their 13-year jail sentences.

They were jailed alongside Henry Long, 19, who was handed a 16-year sentence.

Their sentences will also be examined by the court on October 28 after Attorney General Suella Braverman referred them for being potentially ‘unduly lenient’.

PC Harper’s Thames Valley Police Federation colleague, Sergeant Andy Fiddler, who has been backing Mrs Harper, said: ‘We want to work with the Government, politicians of all parties and the fantastic British public on this. The law must be changed.’

A Government spokesman said: ‘We are in touch with representatives for Lissie Harper and the Home Secretary and Justice Secretary hope to meet with her at the earliest opportunity.’