A police officer’s widow heard in court today how he was dragged by his ankles behind a car for a mile at 42.5mph, shredding nearly all of his uniform off him as he tried to stop a gang stealing a quad bike.
PC Andrew Harper became entangled in a loading strap that three teenagers were allegedly using to tow the stolen bike at a country house in Sulhamstead, Berkshire.
As the gang drove off in their Seat Toledo on August 15 last year, PC Harper was lassoed around the legs and dragged along the lane, jurors at the Old Bailey heard.
Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said: ‘With his ankles caught in a strap that was trailing behind a car being driven at speed along a country lane, he was dragged for over a mile along the road surface.’
The newly-wed officer’s widow Lissie Harper sat in the well of the court as the jury was told how the driver tried to dislodge her 28-year-old husband and he was ‘swung from side to side like a pendulum’ as his uniform was ‘ripped from his body’.
Lissie Harper, the wife of Andrew Harper, is pictured being driven into the Old Bailey today
‘When, at last, he became disentangled, he was left with the most awful injuries, from which he died there on the road, surrounded by colleagues who tried in vain to save him,’ Mr Altman said.
‘His injuries were simply not survivable, and he could not be saved.’ Mr Altman added that he died naked ‘apart from his socks and boots’ and shredded parts of the trousers he was wearing.
He continued: ‘This was a completely senseless killing of a young police officer in the line of duty.’
Driver Henry Long, 18, has admitted manslaughter but denies murder. The two 17-year-old boys have both admitted taking the vehicle, but each deny murder.
Known to his colleagues as ‘Harps’, PC Harper was due to finish his shift at 7pm with colleague PC Andrew Shaw. But on the way back to base they decided to do one final job.
Thomas King, 21, of Bramley, Hampshire, earlier admitted conspiring to steal the same quad bike belonging to Peter Wallace and will be sentenced on a later date.
PC Andrew Harper, 28, was dragged to his death by a car in Berkshire, prosecutors say
Long, of Mortimer, near Reading, admits manslaughter and conspiracy to steal but denies murder. The 17-year-olds admit conspiracy to steal but deny murder.
Mr Altman said: ‘At 11.17 that Thursday night, a Thames Valley Police emergency operator received a report of the theft of a quad bike at a residential address known as Privett House which lies in a quiet country lane off Cock Lane, in Bradfield Southend, in Berkshire.
‘The report, which was made by the homeowner, Peter Wallis, indicated that three or four masked and gloved men had alighted from a car and had managed to make off from his property with his new, 2019 registered, and clearly valuable, Honda TRX500 quad bike. The three men in the dock are those men.’
The two officers responded when they were heading back to their base in Abingdon on the M4 from the Reading area, the Old Bailey heard.
‘Despite it being well beyond the end of their shift, because they were close and thought they could help, they responded to the call. It was a decision that was to cost Andrew Harper his life,’ Mr Altman said.
They came off the M4 and drove up Lambdens Hill confronting the Seat as it drove towards them.
PC Harper and his wife Lissie celebrate their wedding at Ardington House on July 18, 2019
Long was driving, another teenager sat beside him and the second 17-year-old was sitting on the quad bike as it was towed behind the car with the loading strap, the Old Bailey heard.
‘Not only did they wear gloves and disguise themselves with masks, but also they had disconnected all the rear light clusters to the car – brake, side and indicator lights – so that in any pursuit along dark country lanes they could disappear into the night, without trace, as had been their plan,’ Mr Altman said.
‘They had been to the same premises earlier that day, at a little before 5pm, in the daylight, in order to steal the same quad bike.
‘For additional security on that earlier occasion, they had also taped over the number plates to disguise the identity of the car from the front and behind.’
When the thieves were confronted by the unmarked police car, the teenager got off the quad bike, unhitched the handle bars from the loading strap and tried to get into the Seat.
Long then tried to drive around the police car as the teenager struggled to get in.
A court artist’s sketch of Henry Long (left) sitting beside an officer at the Old Bailey yesterday
PC Harper ran after him and his colleague turned on the blue and white flashing lights of the car.
Mr Altman said: ‘In his rush to ensure that he and his friends did not caught the quad bike driver who had unhitched the crane strap from the quad bike, had been unable to replace the crane strap in the car boot.
‘PC Harper, who was but a few feet away, had simply not seen or realised that in that moment he had stepped, with both feet, it appears, into the loop made on the road surface by the trailing crane strap.
‘As Long floored the Seat car to make good their escapes, PC Harper was lassoed around his ankles by the loop of the strap.
‘It is the prosecution case that Long drove that car knowing full well that PC Harper was entangled in the strap, and he drove it in a manner calculated to dislodge him, and to make good their escape, as had been their plan all along.
‘The average speed at which Long drove the car along that dark and narrow county lane was a little over 42.5mph.’
Police officers at the scene in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in August 2019 after PC Harper’s death
Jurors heard the direction car could be traced by a trail of ‘tyre marks, abrasion and scuff marks (and blood) left behind on the road surface, as well as personal items and clothing that were ripped from PC Harper as he was dragged to his death’.
When another driver saw the officer being dragged at the exit of the lane he thought he was looking at a ‘bloodied deer.’
‘He quickly realised it was a person trapped by both ankles being dragged around the road and striking the kerb,’ Mr Altman said.
PC Shaw realised something was wrong when his colleague was still missing when he did not reappear from the rear of the police car and set off to find out what had happened.
Mr Altman continued: ‘Eventually, he managed to turn around in a small lane where Admoor Lane meets Lambden Hill, and, now facing in the right direction, PC Shaw drove back Lambdens Hill but had to stop when he across what turned out to be PC Harper’s stab vest in the road which had been torn from him. Having picked it up and placed it in his car, PC Shaw drove on.’
The prosecutor added: Somehow, not very far after turning into Ufton Lane, PC Harper’s ankles became detached from the strap.’
He said that when other police units arrived on the scene, including PC Shaw who finally caught up, he was naked apart from his socks, boots and some ripped shreds of the seat and the lower right trouser leg of his police uniform.
The prosecutor continued; ‘He was barely alive when he was found. He died soon after where he lay in Ufton Lane in the company of fellow officers who had tried desperately to save him.
‘Needless to say, PC Harper had suffered absolutely catastrophic, unsurvivable injuries.’
The prosecutor told the jury: ‘You will be relieved to hear that there will be no need to see any photographic imagery of his injuries as found in the roadway or in the course of the post-mortem examination of his body.
‘But you will have to hear about them, and you will see visualisations of the dreadful injuries he suffered.’
The trial continues.