Harper's law changed Britain - so why should the killers who inspired it walk free? writes Andy Hughes

As PC Andrew Harper clung to a tow strap attached to their getaway vehicle, the three young men in a car accelerated. They drove on, despite having every opportunity to stop. Instead, they sped through narrow country lanes, around bends and over rough ground, dragging the 28-year-old officer for more than a mile. By the time the vehicle finally came to a halt, Harper had suffered catastrophic injuries. He died before he could be saved.

Now we find out that two of his killers could soon be back on our streets under the government’s early prison release scheme.

These are the same two killers who grinned and smirked at press cameras as they were being led into a prison van. The same two killers who laughed and joked their way through their Old Bailey trial, mocking PC Harper’s widow Lissie, according to one ex-prison guard who spoke to The Sun.

Sentencing Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole to 13 years for manslaughter, the judge, having listened to every minute of the evidence and watched every moment of the defendants' behaviour, concluded that none of them had shown 'anything resembling remorse'.

That these men - and I use that term loosely - could be freed in a couple of months is, frankly, sickening.

It was the news these two killers could be released from prison that triggered the new Prime Minister to pause and review the early release scheme less than two weeks ago.

After reviewing it, Andy Burnham has announced that rape, serious child sex offences and grooming are to be excluded from upcoming cuts to prison sentences.

But not manslaughter.

PC Harper’s widow Lissie said this was a betrayal by Burnham’s government, adding: “They are meant to be on our side.”

“I am beyond appalled and bristling with anger to hear that Andrew’s killers are soon to be free to roam the streets,” she said in a statement. Lissie has also started a petition to stop the release.

It is a fact that the early release scheme is needed, simply because there aren't enough cells to keep convicted criminals off our streets. And it is entirely accurate to say that prisons need to make room for more serious offenders to be behind bars. The shortfall in prison capacity is a national crisis that has no end in sight.

But let’s be clear - Bowers and Cole belong in jail. Everyone can see that, surely.

If they had been sentenced today, they both would have received life sentences under Harper’s Law, which Lissie campaigned for following her husband’s death.

The irony is almost impossible to ignore. Andrew Harper's death changed the law. Parliament decided that anyone who killed an emergency worker in circumstances like these should face a mandatory life sentence. It was an acknowledgement that what happened to PC Harper demanded tougher justice.

And yet, two of the very men whose actions inspired it could walk free early. The case that convinced Britain these offenders should spend longer behind bars has instead become the case that shows exactly why so many people have lost faith in the system.

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Andy Hughes is LBC's Crime Correspondent and host of The Crime Agents podcast.

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