PC Harper widow 'won't give up' early release fight

The widow of a police officer has said she hopes people will share a petition calling for his killers to be denied early release from prison, insisting she "will not give up".

PC Andrew Harper, from Wallingford, died in 2019 when he was dragged by a car as three teenagers fled the scene of a Berkshire quad bike theft.

Under updated plans to tackle prison overcrowding, two of PC Harper's killers - Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers - would be eligible for release next year.

Justice Secretary Alex Norris said the government was trying to avert "a prison capacity crisis".

Lissie Harper said: "Hopefully we can make the current government come to their senses and realise we cannot put people like this back on our streets.

"Justice should mean justice and serving the sentence given."

As of just after 12:30 BST, the petition had over 510,000 signatures. It was started by Aileen O'Connor, chair of Thames Valley Police Federation.

Cole and Bowers were each sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter in 2020, and will become eligible for release after serving half of their sentences.

The driver of the vehicle, Henry Long, received a 16-year sentence and will not be eligible.

On Monday, the government announced revised plans that would exclude prisoners who had committed rape, grooming, and serious child sex offences from an early release scheme for England and Wales.

But people guilty of manslaughter are still eligible for earlier release.

O'Connor told the BBC the news was "having a huge impact on morale".

She added: "Lissie Harper, [PC Harper's] parents, his brother, his family, his close friends - they are serving the life sentence of not having Andrew Harper here today fulfilling his best potential for his life."

In the wake of PC Harper's death, Lissie Harper campaigned for harsher sentences for the manslaughter of emergency workers on duty.

Harper's Law was among the new measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act.

It means that, if convicted today, his killers would not be eligible for the early release scheme.

In a statement, Lissie said: "Seven years later, we are now faced with a secondary gut punch that is coming from our own government.

"The sentences Andrew's killers received were pitiful - and the fact we are hearing these absurd reasons for early release like prisons being too full is disgraceful and disgusting.

"The people making these decisions should be utterly ashamed of themselves."

The government said it was trying to avoid running out of prison spaces as soon as October this year.

The justice secretary said about 1,000 prisoners would now not be released early following the revision to the scheme.

"If we drew it any wider we would have a prison capacity crisis," Alex Norris said.

Prisoners released on licence, he said, would be subject to "very significant controls on their lives" and victims would be consulted.

But Olivia Bailey, the Labour MP for the Reading and Mid West constituency, said: "PC Harper's killers should not be eligible for early release, and I am deeply disappointed that the government have not exempted them from the early release scheme following their review.

"I will continue to do whatever I can to challenge this decision."