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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8450827/Pc-Harper-killed-line-duty-tried-stop-thieves-jury-told.html

PC Andrew Harper was dragged more than a mile along a country lane by his ankles and swung from 'side to side like a pendulum' after trying to stop three teenagers stealing a quad bike, murder trial hears

    PC Andrew Harper was dragged for more than a mile of winding country road
    His uniform was stripped from his body after his ankles got caught in the tow rope
    Driver Henry Long, 19, admits manslaughter but has denied intending to kill him
    He is on trial for murder, with Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, who deny charges

By Mark Duell for MailOnline

Published: 12:00, 23 June 2020 | Updated: 13:30, 23 June 2020

A brave young police officer was killed 'in the line of duty' in 'truly shocking circumstances' as he attempted to stop three teenagers from stealing a quad bike, a trial heard today.  PC Andrew Harper was dragged for more than a mile of a winding country road, his uniform gradually stripped from his body, after his ankles got caught in a tow rope attached to the thieves' car.  Henry Long, 19, drove at speed along the lane in Berkshire on the evening of August 15 last year, in such a fashion that the stricken officer was 'swung side to side like a pendulum in an effort to dislodge him', the Old Bailey heard.  PC Harper eventually became disentangled but died from his injuries in the road.  Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw QC said: 'I'm afraid PC Harper was killed in truly shocking circumstances.  With his ankles caught in a strap that was trailing behind a car being driven along a country lane, he was dragged at speed for over a mile along the road surface, swung from side to side like a pendulum in an effort to dislodge him.  During the course of that high-speed journey, and until at last he became disentangled, his police uniform was quite literally ripped and stripped from his body.  'Almost naked by this point, PC Harper was left as you can imagine with the most appalling of injuries, from which he died there on the road.  It was a senseless killing of a young police officer in the line of duty, a young man who was doing no more than his job.'

Long has admitted the manslaughter of 28-year-old PC Harper but has denied intending to kill him.  He is on trial for murder, along with Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, both 18, who were his passengers.  Jurors were told they had been trying to escape the police, having been caught in the act of stealing a quad bike.  The court heard homeowner Peter Wallis had reported masked thieves making off with the valuable Honda quad bike from his house in Bradfield Southend, near Reading, at 11.17 pm.  PC Harper, known as Harps, and his colleague Pc Andrew Shaw, were in the area in an unmarked police BMW when they responded to the 999 call, more than four hours after their shift was due to end.  Mr. Laidlaw said: ' Despite it being well beyond the end of their shift, because they were close and because thought they could help, they responded to the call.  It was going beyond the call of duty, as it were, and it would cost Andrew Harper his life.'

Mr. Laidlaw said the defendants attached a strap between their Seat Toledo and the handlebars of the quad bike.  He said: 'What we suggest will become clear to you from the evidence was that this was not some sort of opportunistic or spur of the moment theft committed by these three young men.  They had thought through and carefully planned the offence.  Of one thing the prosecution will say you can be sure is this: at whatever the cost, these three defendants were quite determined that they should get away without being caught.'

Mr. Laidlaw said Pcs Harper and Shaw, in an unmarked BMW, drove onto Admoor Lane where they came face-to-face with the Seat Toledo, driven by Long.  But he said there would have been nothing from the appearance of the BMW to tell the defendants that there were two police officers inside.  In the next 15 seconds Cole removed the loop of strapping from the handlebars of the quad bike, Mr. Laidlaw told the court.  With the strapping laying loose on the ground, Cole then tried to get into the Seat car but was unable to, he said.  The policemen switched their blue and white emergency lights on, and PC Harper ran to intercept Cole coming 'pretty close' to grabbing the suspect before Cole 'dived' through one of the windows.  Describing the moment PC Harper got caught in the strapping, prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw told jurors: 'What of course PC Harper had not seen, but each of these defendants would have known, was that the loop of strapping now on the ground and being dragged behind the Seat was still attached to the hinge of the boot lid of the vehicle.  With Jessie Cole now in the car, Henry Long drove off at speed, flooring the accelerator to make good their escape.  Tragically, at that very moment and still, in the act of chasing Jessie Cole down, PC Harper must have quite unwittingly stepped, with both feet, into the loop made of the strapping trailed behind the Seat.'

Mr. Laidlaw said: 'Henry Long continued to drive at speed for the next mile or so and he drove in a manner calculated to dislodge or shake the officer free from the strapping.  'The three, effectively acting together as one, were determined to make good their escape at whatever the cost and regardless of the harm that anybody standing in their way may come to.'

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw said Long drove at an average speed of at least 42.5mph down the windy road.  He said: 'The snaking trail of marks, abrasion and scuff marks, blood and body matter left behind on the road surface, as well as the clothing that was ripped from PC Harper as he was dragged to his death, illustrates that a deliberate attempt was made to dislodge him from the strap.'

He continued: 'The prosecution's position is that the idea that they did not know that it was the policeman who had become entangled in the strap and was being dragged down that country lane behind their speeding car can be resoundingly rejected.'

The prosecutor said Pc Andrew Shaw, Pc Andrew Harper's colleague, 'quickly realised something was very wrong' when PC Harper disappeared from view while trying to apprehend the suspect.  Pc Shaw turned his vehicle around, expecting to find PC Harper waiting for him.  Instead, he came across what turned out to be PC Harper's stab vest in the road, which had been torn from him.  Pc Shaw later discovered his colleague's body.  Mr. Laidlaw said: 'PC Harper was completely naked apart from his socks, the heavy boots he was wearing and some ripped shreds of the trousers of his police uniform, which remained attached to his body.  He was barely alive and PC Harper died soon after where he lay in Ufton Lane in the company of fellow officers who had tried desperately to save him.'

Cole, from Aldermaston, and Bowers and Long, both from Mortimer, Reading, have admitted conspiring to steal the quad bike but deny murder.  Jurors have been told the case is being retried after the original trial, which began in February, was abandoned due to the coronavirus pandemic.  On Monday, judge Mr. Justice Edis described the victim as a 'brave young' officer, but told jurors they must decide the case in a 'fair-minded and clear-sighted' way, despite any thoughts of 'admiration' for PC Harper's actions on the night he died.  The trial continues and is due to last up to five weeks.