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PC Andrew Harper's widow launches campaign for life sentences for killers of emergency workers

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The widow of PC Andrew Harper has launched a campaign for automatic life sentences for killers of emergency service workers.

Lissie Harper, 28, is expected to meet Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel in her bid to change the law under which criminals convicted of killing a police officer, firefighter, nurse, doctor or paramedic would be jailed for life.

Her campaign, launched in conjunction with the Police Federation representing rank and file officers, follows the sentencing of her husband’s killers Henry Long, 19, and 18 year-olds Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers to 16 years and 13 years respectively for the manslaughter of PC Harper.

The Attorney General Suella Braverman is considering calls to review the sentences for being “unduly lenient.”

Ms Harper is seeking backing from the public and politicians for the change to be known as “Andrew’s law” in memory of her husband, who was killed by the trio of youths when they dragged him behind their car after being caught attempting to steal a quad bike.

Ms Harper said: “As a widow of a police officer - a title in 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.

“I have grown close to our under-appreciated protectors ever more since the death of Andrew, I have been enveloped in love and support from not only the police and other emergency workers but so many of the general public too who I know fully support my feelings over the verdict and sentences in which Andrew’s killers have received.

“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.”

She added: “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.

"I hope that by creating a new ‘Andrew’s Law’ - that sees any person who commits a crime that results in the death of an emergency worker being jailed for life - that those that have to go through what I have been through in the future get the justice that they rightly deserve.”

The campaign has been backed by MPs including former policing minister Sir Mike Penning.

John Apter,  chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “The killing of a police officer should see those responsible face the rest of their lives in prison. 

“This campaign would be Andrew’s legacy and we will continue to support Lissie in her efforts to seek justice and change the law for the greater good.”

PC Harper’s Thames Valley Police Federation colleague Sgt Andy Fiddler, who has been supporting Lissie since his death in August last year, said: “We want a new Andrew’s Law that protects all our emergency services workers that are killed on duty as a result of someone committing a crime.

“Those in society who hurt those there to protect us should be dealt with the full force of the law and judicial system.”

Ms Harper added: “Andrew will never be forgotten - emergency workers and fellow police officers will never don their uniforms and begin their shifts in the way that they did before he was taken. The details of his death clearly etched in their minds.

“I urge you all to see the dangers that our protectors face on every shift that they begin, the risks that they are forced to take in order to keep our people safe. Far too often one of our own is taken from us, far to common is it that one of our care givers is injured. No one should have to give their life for their job.

“I wish to ensure that anyone who finds themselves in my position, any widows of the future will not have to experience the same miscarriages of justice.

“Let us finally put in place laws in which we can actually be proud of, let us do something about the injustices of our systems that cause so much heartache and utter outrage from us all.”

Separately, Debbie Adlam, the mother of Pc Harper, called for a "mandatory" 20-year minimum prison term for killers of police officers.

She also called for reductions in sentences granted to younger offenders to be scrapped - saying it pulled “the rug from under what the sentence should be".

"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,” she said.