Pc Andrew Harper murder trial: 'Senseless killing of a young man doing his job'
Retrial of death of police officer in West Berkshire begins
Police officer Andrew Harper "died in the line of duty" in "truly shocking circumstances" a jury has heard.
Pc Harper, 28, was dragged more than a mile down a West Berkshire country lane, "swung from side to side like a pendulum in an effort to dislodge him" after his ankle got caught in a strap attached to a vehicle.
The young officer had been responding to reports of a burglary in Bradfield Southend on the night of August 15 last year.
The court heard that Pc Harper and his colleague Pc Andrew Shaw encountered a vehicle described in the burglary, being driven by Henry Long, 19, from Mortimer. He was accompanied by Albert Bowers, 18, from Mortimer, and Jessie Cole, 18 from Aldermaston.
Long denies murdering Pc Harper but has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and conspiracy to steal a quadbike.
Bowers and Cole deny murder and manslaughter but have admitted conspiracy to steal.
A trial into Pc Harper's death opened earlier this year but had to be abandoned following lockdown and after three jurors went into self-isolation because of coronavirus.
Addressing the Old Bailey at the start of a new trial, Jonathan Laidlaw QC said the incident was "a senseless killing of a young police officer in the line of duty; a young man who was doing no more than his job".
The court heard that the two officers were driving along the M4 heading back to their base station at Abingdon to end their shift when the burglary call came through.
"Despite it being well beyond the end of their shift, because they were close and thought they could help, they responded to the call. Going beyond the call of duty, as it were, would cost Andrew Harper his life," Mr Laidlaw said.
Coming off at junction 12 the officers turned in Lambdens Hill in Beenham and then into Admoor Lane, where they encountered a Seat Toledo being driven by Long with Bowers in the front passenger seat.
Cole was riding a stolen quadbike being towed by the Seat on a strap that had been looped around the handlebars.
Mr Laidlaw said that the men had scoped out the area earlier in the day and had returned to commit the theft.
He said: "Not only were they also disguised with masks and gloved up to avoid leaving fingerprints, but they had also disconnected all the rear light clusters to the car – brake, side and indicator lights – so that in any pursuit along the dark country lanes they could literally disappear into the night.
"There would be little point going to all this effort to steal a new, valuable quad bike only to be caught. They had clearly identified and thought through the possibility that they might be stopped by the police."
As the Seat and unmarked BMW police car approached each other, coming 6m apart, Mr Laidlaw said: "At this time, there would have been nothing from the appearance of the BMW to tell them that there were two police officers inside.
"The police car was unmarked, and a reconstruction shows that at this point the defendants would not have been able to see into the BMW and identify the occupants in the front seats from their uniforms as police officers.
"Whether in fact one of more of the defendants had in fact suspected or worked out that it was an unmarked car is an entirely different question.
"From the events that were to follow, that is certainly likely."
At this point, the court heard, Cole threw the strap off the quadbike and ran for the Seat, trying to get in the rear passenger door.
But the vehicle had mounted a verge in an effort to get around the police vehicle, meaning Cole had to run past it.
Pc Shaw activated the vehicle's blue and white lights "putting beyond doubt, if there had been any, that the occupants of the BMW were police officers," Mr Laidlaw said.
The the two vehicles now boot-to-boot Pc Harper left the BMW and began running towards the Seat in a bid to apprehend Cole.
"Illuminated by the rear lights of the police car, as well as by the pulsating blue and white emergency lights, certainly Jessie Cole and probably the driver and passenger in the SEAT could not have failed to have seen Pc Harper, who was within feet of him, and to have realised he was a police officer in full uniform," Mr Laidlaw said.
"Indeed, PC Harper very nearly grabbed him. But such was Cole’s desperation to flee with the others, he dived through one of the passenger side windows of the car."
With Cole now in the car the vehicle began accelerating.
"Tragically, at that very moment and still in the act of chasing down Jessie Cole, Pc Harper must have quite unwittingly stepped, with both feet, into the loop made on the road surface by the trailing strap," Mr Laidlaw said.
"It will be obvious to you all that none of the defendants could possibly have intended that that should happen.
"But the prosecution case is that it must have been very quickly obvious to Henry Long, who was after all at the wheel of the car, that the vehicle was now dragging somebody.
"That realisation should, of course, have led these young men to have stopped the car immediately.
"The consequences for the police officer, hopelessly trapped as he was, in continuing to speed off, would have been perfectly obvious to all three of them – the officer would very likely be killed. It would be a virtual certainty.
"How could he possibly survive if the car continued to be driven away?
"But that is what Henry Long did and there is certainly no evidence or any indication that either Albert Bowers or Jessie Cole was inclined to or made any attempt to persuade Henry Long to stop."
The court heard that Long continued to drive at speed, averaging 42.5mph, for about a mile "in a manner calculated to dislodge or shake the officer free from the strapping".
Having to turn his police vehicle around, Pc Shaw followed the Seat back down Lambdens Hill but stopped when he came across a dark object lying in the road – Pc Harper's stab vest, which had been torn from him.
Mr Laidlaw said that this occurred around the time the Seat reached the A4 and that the gang must have thought they had evaded capture, but Long continued to drive at speed in the certain knowledge that a policeman was being dragged behind.
Pc Harper became detached from the strap shortly after crossing the A4. Mr Laidlaw said he died soon after "where he lay in Ufton Lane in the company of fellow officers who had tried desperately to save him".
Pc Harper died from multiple injuries described by Mr Laidlaw as "absolutely catastrophic and un-survivable".
Another police officer, Pc Bushnell, took up the chase where he "found himself obstructed by on-coming traffic as the defendants travelled cross country towards a travellers’ site about four miles away, where they were to dump the car and to hide out".
Mr Laidlaw said that Long had to double back and drove at speed towards Pc Bushnell's vehicle as if was intending to ram it.
Long managed to outrun this second police vehicle and the three defendants arrived at the travellers’ site just before 11.35pm.
The court heard that a police helicopter using thermal imaging cameras identified the SEAT at the Four Houses Corner caravan site.
Mr Laidlaw said that during their interviews with the police, Bowers and Cole made no comment to the questions asked, while Long told deliberate lies, pretending that he had been at the caravan site during the course of that night.
The trial, expected to last five weeks, continues.
