£650K LEGAL AID BILL OF PC HARPER KILLERS
THE killers of PC Andrew Harper got more than £650,000 legal aid funded by taxpayers, figures reveal.
It dwarfs the £465,767 earlier reported given to Henry Long, 19, and 18-yearolds Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole.
And it is set to rise as all three have challenged their sentences, while the Appeal Court will also consider claims the terms were too lenient. Ministry of Justice figures show Long got £239,430, Cole £207,932 and Bowers £206,776.
PC Harper’s wife Lissie, 29 – whose Andrew’s Law campaign aims to get life sentences for killers of 999 personnel – said: “I am sure the public will be as staggered as I am to know these escalating legal costs – defending those that show no remorse for their actions. I will keep fighting for what is right and fair and I thank Sunday Mirror readers for their unstinting support.”
The trio were cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter. Long, the driver, got 16 years and his pals 13.
PC Harper, 28, died in August last year, tangled in a tow rope behind the fleeing thieves’ car in Berkshire.