[ad_1]
The sentences handed down to the murderers of PC Andrew Harper remain unchanged after challenges in the Court of Appeal.
Henry Long, 19, had been given 16 years and Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, 18, were sentenced to 13 years in July for the death of the Thames Valley Police Traffic Officer.
PC Harper, 28, was trapped on a leash tied to the back of a car driven by Long and dragged to his death down a winding country road as the trio fled the scene of a quad bike robbery in Berkshire the night of August 15, 2019..
Henry Long, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole had stolen a quad
Albert Bowers (left) and Jessie Cole (center) leaving Reading Magistrates Court in September 2019
Long admitted to manslaughter, while passengers Cole and Bowers were convicted of manslaughter after a trial at the Old Bailey.
All three were acquitted of murder by the jury, which deliberated for more than 12 hours.
At the time, PC Harper’s widow, Lissie Harper, said she was “completely shocked and appalled” for the decision not to convict the trio of murder.
PC Harper and his wife Lissie on their wedding day
While the attorney general Suella Braverman argued that the sentences of the three adolescents were “unduly lenient” and “a case of homicide as serious as it is possible to imagine.”
At a hearing in November, he told the Court of Appeal that Long, who was described by prosecutors as the leader of the group, should have been sentenced to life in prison.
Attorneys representing the three argued that their sentences were too long and should be reduced.
On Wednesday, Dame Victoria Sharp said the court had dismissed the attorney general’s appeal against Long, Cole and Bowers’ manslaughter sentences, as well as the trio’s own appeals against their terms of custody.
The court reduced the sentences imposed on Cole and Bowers for conspiracy to rob, from 38 months in detention to 18 months in detention and training order, given their ages at the time of the crime.
However, Dame Victoria said: “The effect of our decision is that the three offenders remain convicted of the involuntary manslaughter of PC Harper and the total length of their prison sentences remains unchanged.”
A request by Cole and Bowers for permission to appeal their convictions for the involuntary manslaughter of PC Harper was rejected as “totally indisputable.”
In a post-ruling statement, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said: “The attorney general challenged the sentences handed down to PC Harper’s killers as too low, but respects the decision of the Court of Appeals.
“His thoughts remain with the PC Harper family for their unimaginable loss.”
