Pc Andrew Harper's widow launches campaign for full life jail terms for killers of emergency services workers

Rebecca Speare-Cole5 August 2020

Pc Andrew Harper's widow are launching a campaign for criminals convicted of killing emergency workers to spend the rest of their lives in jail.

Lissie Harper is calling for "Andrew's Law" in memory of her husband that would see harsher punishments for anyone who kills a police officer, firefighter, nurse, doctor or paramedic.

It comes after Mrs Harper said she was “immensely disappointed” that the three teenagers who killed her husband were cleared of murder and instead convicted of manslaughter.

The newlywed officer died after being called to reports of a burglary in progress and bravely confronting the thieves.

His feet became entangled in a tow rope as they sped away from the scene on the night of August 15 last year.

Pc Andrew Harper had married Lissie only four weeks before he was killed 
PA

Henry Long, 19, the driver of the car was jailed for 16 years for manslaughter at the Old Bailey last month.

The two other occupants of the car, 18-year-olds Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, were each jailed for 13 years.

Mrs Harper, who is working in conjunction with the Police Federation of England and Wales on the campaign, intends to push for a change in the law in high-profile meetings with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel in the coming weeks.

Henry Long, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers
Thames Valley Police/PA Wire

She is also calling on the public and politicians of all parties to back her in her campaign.

Mrs Harper said: “I pledge to my late husband to never stop until I have made the difference that this country clearly needs.

"I vow to stand strong and firm with so many other honourable people in our country to make the changes that we clearly know to be justified.

Mrs Harper outside the Old Bailey in London
PA

"I hope that by creating a new "Andrew’s Law" - that sees any person who commits a crime that results in the death of an emergency worker being jailed for life - that those that have to go through what I have been through in the future get the justice that they rightly deserve.”

Also launching the campaign is Pc Harper's mother Debbie Adlam, who told PA that "something needs to change" after the sentences were handed out.

She said: "We’ve come to realise that, with the outcome of the trial as it stands, something needs to change.

“He is worth much more than this and we’ve been thinking for some time that something needs to be brought in to protect our police officers.

“There’s nobody looking out for them and we aim to change that.”

Mrs Adlam added: “We’re looking to bring in a minimum term – 20 years. No parole, no reductions.”

Pc Harper's mother Debbie Adlam
PA

The Attorney General Suella Braverman is currently reviewing the sentences of Long, Cole and Bowes to see if they were too lenient.

Currently defendants under the age of 21 receive lower sentences, but Mrs Adlam believes this should end.

“As far as their age and the reductions go, my personal thoughts are there is no sense whatsoever in being 18 or 19 and getting time off your sentence.

“My gut turns when I think about that because you can change your gender, you can get a mortgage, you can serve in the Army, and the thing that really bugs me is you can be on a jury – yet you are not treated as an adult until you’re 21 in the judicial system.

“That can’t be right.”

Mrs Harper added: “As a widow of a police officer - a title which I would give everything to not have - I have witnessed first-hand the lenient and insufficient way in which the justice system deals with criminals who take the lives of our emergency workers.

Aerial view of the scene at Ufton Lane, near Sulhamstead, Berkshire, where Pc Andrew Harper died.
PA

“I have grown close to our under-appreciated protectors ever more since the death of Andrew, I have been enveloped in love and support from not only the police and other emergency workers but so many of the general public too who I know fully support my feelings over the verdict and sentences in which Andrew’s killers have received.

“The people responsible for wreaking utter despair and grief in all of our lives will spend an inadequate amount of time behind bars. These men who showed no remorse, no guilt or sorrow for taking such an innocent and heroic life away will find themselves able to live out the rest of their lives free and able to commit more crimes and continue to put people in danger when they are released in a very small number of years.”

Family of killed Pc Andrew Harper welcome jail term review

The campaign is backed by the Police Federation, which is working with Mrs Harper on the timescales and legal drafting of her demands, and high-profile politicians, including former police minister and Conservative MP Sir Mike Penning.

John Apter, national chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “We fully support Lissie and her campaign to seek a change in the law. Andrew was brutally killed, leaving his wife, loved ones, colleagues and the nation devastated.

Aerial view of the scene at Ufton Lane, near Sulhamstead, Berkshire, where Pc Andrew Harper died.
PA

“The killing of a police officer should see those responsible face the rest of their lives in prison. This campaign would be Andrew’s legacy and we will continue to support Lissie in her efforts to seek justice and change the law for the greater good.”

Pc Harper’s Thames Valley Police Federation colleague Sgt Andy Fiddler, who has been supporting Mrs Harper, said: “We want a new Andrew’s Law that protects all our emergency services workers that are killed on duty as a result of someone committing a crime.

“Those in society who hurt those there to protect us should be dealt with the full force of the law and judicial system.”

Mrs Harper added: “Andrew will never be forgotten - emergency workers and fellow police officers will never don their uniforms and begin their shifts in the way that they did before he was taken. The details of his death clearly etched in their minds.

“I urge you all to see the dangers that our protectors face on every shift that they begin, the risks that they are forced to take in order to keep our people safe.

"Far too often one of our own is taken from us, far too common is it that one of our care givers is injured. No one should have to give their life for their job.

“I wish to ensure that anyone who finds themselves in my position, any widows of the future will not have to experience the same miscarriages of justice."