PC Andrew Harper killers’ sentences unchanged after appeal
Andrew Harper #AndrewHarper
The sentences given to the killers of PC Andrew Harper, who was dragged to his death in August 2019, will not be increased after challenges at the court of appeal.
Harper, 28, was caught in a strap attached to the back of a car driven by Henry Long, 19, and dragged along a winding country road as Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers fled the scene of a quad bike theft in Berkshire on the night of 15 August 2019.
Long admitted manslaughter and was given 16 years, while passengers Cole and Bowers were convicted of manslaughter after a trial at the Old Bailey and handed 13-year sentences.
The attorney general, Suella Braverman, had argued the sentences given were too lenient.
Harper’s widow, Lissie, said she was disappointed with the decision, adding that she felt “let down” by the justice system.
Announcing the court of appeal’s decision, Dame Victoria Sharp said the court had dismissed the attorney general’s appeal against Long, Cole and Bowers’ sentences for manslaughter, as well as the trio’s own appeals against their custodial terms.
The judges also denied the killers’ attempt to have their manslaughter sentences reduced, but the court did reduce the sentences imposed on Cole and Bowers for conspiracy to steal, from 38 months’ detention to an 18-month detention and training order, given their ages at the time of the offence.
However, Sharp said: “The effect of our decision is that all three offenders remain convicted of the manslaughter of Harper and the overall length of their custodial sentences remain unaltered.”
An application by Cole and Bowers for leave to appeal against their convictions for Harper’s manslaughter was refused as being “wholly unarguable”.
All three were cleared of murder by the jury, which deliberated for more than 12 hours.
At a hearing in November, Braverman said the youths’ sentences should be increased, for an offence that was “as serious a case of manslaughter as it is possible to envisage”.
But lawyers representing the trio, who appeared by video link from Belmarsh prison in south-east London, argued their sentences were too long and should be reduced.
In a statement after the ruling, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office said: “The attorney general challenged the sentences given to PC Harper’s killers as she considered them to be too low, but she respects the decision of the court of appeal. Her thoughts remain with PC Harper’s family for their unimaginable loss.”
Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice after last month’s hearing, Lissie Harper said: “I stand before you with my heart as heavy as it was those many months ago when I stood feeling let down and angry outside of the Old Bailey.
“Yet today I feel pride in myself for not settling for something that I see as unacceptable. Proud to fight for my heroic husband Andrew, as I also continue to push for the safety and justice of his fellow emergency service protectors in the future.
“Today has been as harrowing as you can all expect. However, we leave this court with at least a sense of balance. Reaching a step closer to a fair outcome is something that I have strived towards for a long time.