In 2019, a police officer, Andrew Harper, was killed while on duty. After responding to a burglary he chased after a car, and was caught in a strap attached to it. The car was driven away, and Harper was dragged for a mile behind it, at an average speed of 42.5 miles per hour. His body was found by colleagues, and a later post-mortem showed he had died of multiple injuries, suggesting he had been caught between the car and the road. He was 28 when he died and had been married less than a month.
The car was driven by 18-year-old Henry Long. With him in the car were 17-year-olds Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole. All three were charged, and, in 2020, acquitted of murder. Long pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 16 years. Bowers and Cole were found guilty of manslaughter, and were each sentenced to 13 years, but it has now emerged that they may be eligible for release under the new Sentencing Act policy which due to come into effect in September.
Many people, not least Andrew’s widow, Lissie, are angry. She has described their possible early release, at the halfway point of their sentences, as ‘deplorable’. The Prime Minister has intervened, saying that he can’t ‘change the policy completely, but…will look at it in detail before we go further forward’. He went on to say: ‘keeping the public safe will always be my top priority. I am working closely with the new Justice Secretary and have instructed my team to put a pause on the changes that were due to start in September. No prisoners will be let out under this policy until we have conducted an urgent review and done everything we can to minimise risk to the public. Where changes are needed, we will not hesitate to make the.’
