The widow of hero police officer PC Andrew Harper is launching a campaign for “Andrew’s Law” – which would see criminals who are convicted of killing emergency services workers spend the rest of their lives in jail.
Lissie Harper has vowed to fight for a change in the law in memory of her late husband, so that anyone who is convicted of killing a police officer, firefighter, nurse, doctor or paramedic is jailed for life.
Lissie – who is working in conjunction with the Police Federation of England and Wales on the campaign – intends to call for the law change in high-profile meetings with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel in the coming weeks.
She is calling on the British public and politicians of all parties to back her in her campaign.
Lissie said:
“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.”
Newly married Thames Valley Police officer PC Andrew Harper was killed on 15th August last year by Henry Long, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole.
The trio were convicted of manslaughter last month but were cleared of murder.
Long was jailed for 16 years and Bowers and Cole for 13 years. The Attorney General is currently reviewing their sentences to see if they were too lenient.
Lissie added:
“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.”
The campaign has the backing of the Police Federation, which is working with Lissie on the timescales and legal drafting of her demands, and high-profile politicians, including former Police Minister and Conservative MP Sir Mike Penning.
John Apter, National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said:
“We fully support Lissie and her campaign to seek a change in the law. Andrew was brutally killed, leaving his wife, loved ones, colleagues and the nation devastated.
“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.”
Lissie 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.”
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Any person, impeding a member of any response or rescue service member attending an incident or in avoiding apprehension, injures or kills such a member, deserves life mprisonment, when such career criminals then taunt, either , that person or a member of their family, as in,” I don’t give a f….k about any of this” and ” we will have you back, she has only got his ashes,” this is beyond the pale, to also brag that the offender is under the protection of, ‘mr Big’, whilst in prison, showing a complete and utter disrespect for the law and for humanity, there should be a special law to deal with such depravity. The criminal and their associates must learn that crime does not pay and will be punished severely,