PC Andrew Harper’s widow launches campaign for whole-life sentences for killers of police officers
Debbie Adlam criticises ‘lenient and insufficient way in which the justice system deals with criminals who take the lives of our emergency workers’
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Your support makes all the difference.The mother and widow of PC Andrew Harper have launched campaigns for tougher punishments for people who kill police officers.
Debbie Adlam, the officer's mother, said that "something needs to change" after those responsible for her son's death were handed 16-year and 13-year sentences at the Old Bailey on Friday.
PC Harper's widow Lissie Harper, meanwhile, has called for all killers of police officers to face full-life jail terms.
The 28-year-old Thames Valley Police officer died as he tried to prevent three thieves from fleeing after they stole a quad bike in Stanford Dingley in Berkshire on 15 August last year. He was caught in a crane strap dangling from the back of a Seat Toledo and dragged to his death.
Ringleader Henry Long, 19, was jailed for 16 years, and 18-year-olds Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers were each handed13-year sentences at the Old Bailey on Friday for the officer's manslaughter.
Ms Adlam called for a minimum term of 20 years for anyone who takes an officer’s life, with no chance of parole during that time.
Launching her campaign on Wednesday, Ms Adlam told PA: “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.”
Ms Adlam added: “We’re looking to bring in a minimum term – 20 years. No parole, no reductions.”
Ms Harper's campaign, backed by the Police Federation of England and Wales, calls for for full-life prison terms for those who kill any emergency services workers.
Calling for an "Andrew's Law", she 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."
On Tuesday, the Attorney General’s Office confirmed that it has been asked to consider if the jail terms handed to Harper’s killers are too lenient.
Long, of College Piece in Mortimer, was sentenced to 16 years, while Cole, from Paices Hill, Aldermaston, Reading, and Bowers, of Windmill Corner, Mortimer Common, Reading, were each handed 13-year terms.
Currently defendants under the age of 21 receive lower sentences, but Ms 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.”
Ms Harper is also campaigning for tougher penalties in a move backed by the Police Federation, which represents more than 120,000 officers up to the rank of chief inspector.
She said: “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.
“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.”
Ms Harper is due to meet the prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the home secretary, Priti Patel, in the coming weeks.
Since 2015, the starting point for a judge sentencing an adult over the age of 21 who has been convicted of murdering a police or prison officer is a whole life sentence.
The judge then takes aggravating and mitigating factors into account before either passing a life sentence with a minimum jail term, or a whole life order.
Additional reporting by Press Association