A teenager accused of murdering PC Andrew Harper told officers ‘I don’t give a f*** about any of this’ when he was charged with the alleged killing, a jury today heard, as pictures emerged of his co-defendants grinning outside court.
In a prepared statement, murder accused Henry Long, 19, initially told officers he was not involved in the officer’s death, had not been at the scene and had instead been watching DVDs, including Fast & Furious and the Goonies.
When being arrested he allegedly said words along the lines of: ‘Look at me. Do I look like a murderer?’ and later, on being charged with murder, allegedly said: ‘I don’t give a f*** about any of this.’
Long later admitted he was the driver of the car, but denies murder, claiming he did not know PC Harper was attached to the vehicle.
It comes as jury members heard how Long allegedly drove his Seat Toledo at speeds of 43mph on winding country lanes for more than a mile with PC Harper behind, entangled on a strap attached to the vehicle.
The Old Bailey has heard the 28-year-old officer had been trying to apprehend Long and two other youths after they made off with a quad bike from a home in Berkshire on August 15 last year.
Long, along with his passengers Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, both 18, have denied murder but admitted conspiring to steal the £10,000 quad bike.
Long, along with his passengers Jessie Cole (in red) and Albert Bowers (in green), both 18, have denied murder but admitted conspiring to steal the £10,000 quad bike. Pictured in September 2019.
The scene near Sulhamstead in Berkshire, where PC Harper was killed on August 15, 2019
Long has also pleaded guilty to PC Harper’s manslaughter, jurors have been told.
On the second day of the retrial, prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw QC told how the defendants were arrested soon after the Seat was located by a police helicopter at Four Houses Corner travellers’ site
In a prepared statement, he said he had been at the caravan site that evening.
Mr Laidlaw told the court: ‘At the start of his first police interview on 16 August 2019, Henry Long’s solicitor read out a prepared statement which Henry Long had signed. It was in these terms: ‘I am not involved in this incident.
‘I have never been to a house yesterday looking at Quad bikes. My fingerprints or DNA will not be on the quad bike.
‘At 5pm I can’t remember exactly where I was but I got to Four Houses caravan site about 8.30pm and I stayed there all evening until police came and arrested me.
‘I was with my auntie Sammi Jo and her husband Sammy Smith.
‘We watched DVD’s. One was Goonies, Fast and Furious. I went bed I think around 10.30pm.
‘Police woke me up. I had been outside just for a cigarette but otherwise had not left. I do not believe that I have been 43 in a beige Seat Toledo.
‘I certainly have never been in it yesterday but there are numerous cars on the site.’
Mr Laidlaw said: ‘Henry Long now accepts he was driver of the car.
‘In the prepared statement he told clear and deliberate lies. He then made ‘no comment’ to all the questions asked of him in that first interview, save for this one exchange.
‘When asked about the SEAT that had been recovered, Henry Long said “If something happened and the car was found, say for instance in a housing estate, would everyone in that housing estate get arrested, or is it just a gypsy site where a car gets found, everyone gets arrested?”
‘In other words, he is complaining that the police are discriminating against the travelling community.’
Mr Laidlow said Long maintains he did not know he was dragging anybody for the mile or so he drove down to the A4.
But the prosecutor suggested the evidence would show ‘he knew perfectly well he was dragging a person behind the car – furthermore it could only have been a police officer from the unmarked car that had confronted them in Admoor Lane’.
Today jury members were also told how a macabre re-enactment of PC Harper’s horrific death using a dummy proved it would be ‘clear and obvious’ to the occupants of a car that he was being dragged behind them.
PC Andrew Harper was dragged for more than a mile of winding country road, his uniform gradually stripped from his body, after his ankles got caught in a tow rope attached to a car
PC Harper with his sister-in-law Kate and his wife Lissie on their wedding day, just four weeks before his death
The court heard how PC Harper ‘swung from side to side like a pendulum’ after he became caught in a loading strap which had been used to attach the quad bike.
Jury members heard Long swerved in an effort to dislodge him.
Mr Laidlaw told jurors today the reconstruction showed Long must have known of the officer’s plight behind their SEAT.
Experts recreating the scene with a mannequin heard loud noise from the rear and saw the dummy being dragged.
The teenagers appeared via video-link from HMP Belmarsh for the second day of the murder trial today while PC Harper’s widow Lissie Harper sat in court alongside his parents.
The prosecutor said: ‘A reconstruction of the events took place at 11:30pm on 4 September 2019.
‘For the fourth part of the reconstruction, a mannequin of a similar weight to PC Harper, wearing police uniform and equipment, was attached via a strap tied to the nearside boot hinge of the SEAT, and dragged along the same route.
‘Again, Simon Hall (the investigator) drove the car with his three colleagues on board. On this occasion, he said it became obvious that he was dragging the mannequin.
A sketch by court artist Elizabeth Cook of (left to right) Henry Long, 19, Albert Bowers, 18, and Jessie Cole, 18, as they sit in the dock at the Old Bailey in London yesterday
‘The drag on the road and the noise created by its movement were significant. Once he began negotiating bends along Lambdens Hill, the pendulum effect of the mannequin being swung side to side was clearly and obviously detectable both audibly and through its effect on the steering.
‘This was particularly the case as he drove through the multiple bends in the road.’
Mr Laidlow said investigators could not see the mannequin from the driver’s position through the windows or mirrors as it was too dark behind the car – as the rear lights were disconnected.
He said: ‘It was, therefore, his (the investigator’s) opinion that anyone driving the SEAT could not fail to be aware that something of significant weight was being dragged behind the vehicle.
‘The drag effect on both the steering and the handling of the car, and, most significantly, the noise of the mannequin being dragged along the road, meant that its presence behind the vehicle was clear and obvious.’
A second investigator sitting in the backseat heard a ‘loud swishing sound,’ jurors heard.
Jurors also heard from a witness who claims she saw a ‘suspicious’ SEAT Toledo with its number plates taped up and a ‘rough’ passenger staring at her through the rear window at around 4pm of the day’s of PC Harper’s death.
In a statement read to jurors, Ann Edmonds said: ‘The male sat behind the driver watched me as I walked past. My attention was drawn to him. He looked a bit dirty and rough, he had dark hair. He had a roundish face.
PC Harper’s funeral service at Christ Church Cathedral in St Aldate’s, Oxford, in October 2019
Flowers for PC Harper at the Thames Valley Police Training Centre in Sulhamstead last August
‘I remember the car and its occupants as it was out of place, a bit odd and the male was staring at me so I felt a bit uncomfortable.’
Another, Rebecca Brooke, told jury members she became scared when she realised the occupants were ‘up to no good’ as she passed in her car and called the police.
She said: ‘My initial thought was that the car had been involved in an accident as there was a significant dent. The dent looked about a foot in length and as if it had hit a tree,’ she said.
‘I started to lower my window to ask if they were okay. The car began to drive towards me and it was then I noticed the number plate had royal blue tape all over it.
‘It made me think they were up to no good so I stopped lowering my window.
‘As they got closer I realised all the people in the car were wearing balaclavas and the driver was staring at me. I felt physically intimidated and scared.
‘I realised something wasn’t right so I called the police. I was intimidated by the driver staring at me.’
The retrial of Long and Bowers, from Mortimer, near Reading, and Cole, of Aldermaston, continues.