SerpApi.Org
For Debbie Adlam, there is no moving on. Nearly seven years after her police officer son Andrew Harper was dragged to his death behind a getaway car while trying to stop thieves stealing a quad bike, she still thinks about him every day.
Now, because of Labour, she could be faced with something even worse – coming face to face with her son’s killers.
The men who took the 28-year-old police officer’s life are among prisoners who could be set free under Labour’s early release scheme to ease overcrowding in prisons.
Despite widespread criticism from MPs and victims’ charities, Labour’s 2026 Sentencing Act is set to come into force in September, when up to 6,000 offenders could be released early under the scheme.
And even though outrage at the short length of sentences for Andrew’s killers led to the creation of Harper’s Law – ensuring mandatory life sentences for those convicted of killing an emergency worker while committing another crime – two of the three men responsible could soon be free to walk the streets.
“I’m thinking about my son every moment of every day, and then this,” Adlam tells The Telegraph. “The insult is beyond anything able to be put into words.
“It makes me feel sick. Andrew’s life doesn’t get to come back.”
On Wednesday morning, following Adlam’s intervention in this newspaper, Andy Burnham, the new Prime Minister, said he would review the potential early release of Harper’s killers. Matthew Barber, the police and crime commissioner for Thames Valley, Harper’s former force, even called for emergency legislation preventing their release if that’s what is necessary. But to the late police officer’s mother it’s astonishing that officials could even have been countenancing letting her son’s killers out of prison early.
Burnham’s statement is “a good start”, she says, but “we shouldn’t be talking about this. It shouldn’t be an issue. We should have a justice system that works, but it doesn’t.
“Let’s hope it comes to something. I don’t want it to be lip service. He’s [Burnham] trying to please people at the moment. Make them do their time. It still won’t be enough for us.”
Adlam’s nightmare started in August 2019, when her son Andrew had been married only a month. The officer’s shift was ending when he and one of his Thames Valley Police colleagues spotted thieves trying to steal a quad bike in Berkshire.
Unbeknown to him, the thieves had an axe, three crowbars and a hammer in the car. Prosecutors later said they were “intending, if met with resistance, that serious harm would be caused to commit the offence of theft or to secure their escape”.
As Pc Harper gave chase, his foot was caught in a towrope loop attached to the getaway car. For more than a mile, Harper was “swung from side to side like a pendulum” on country roads before he became free of the rope, his murder trial heard.
Tragically, Pc Harper died on the road from his injuries. He and his wife, Lissie – his childhood sweetheart – hadn’t even gone on their honeymoon yet.
His killers, Henry Long, then 18, and Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both then 17, hid at a nearby gypsy and traveller site, where they destroyed evidence before they were arrested.
During the trial, jurors received special protection after police uncovered a plot by the killers’ associates to intimidate them.
All three defendants were cleared of murder. Long, who was driving the car, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, a charge Bowers and Cole were found also guilty of. Long received a jail sentence of 16 years and his accomplices were handed prison sentences of 13 years each.
For Harper’s mother, that was hard enough. “I wasn’t very happy with what they got to start with,” she says. But now Adlam’s victim liaison officer has sent her a letter warning that they could be set free early. The Telegraph understands that Bowers and Cole are in line to be released within months, having each only served half of their sentence, rather than two-thirds, under the Ministry of Justice early release scheme.
“Any reduction makes a mockery of sentencing,” she says. “It’s a gift for prisoners to be let out early. The cost is to us, the victims, and then the public, who they become a risk to, potentially.
“If you are given a sentence for a crime, you should be serving that sentence. They have put themselves in for their actions.”
Harper’s death sent shock waves across the nation. Images of the smiling young officer at his wedding became symbolic of the risks police officers face every day, while tributes poured in from around Britain.
His killers’ sentences prompted nationwide outrage and ultimately led to Harper’s Law. If such a law had existed before Pc Harper’s death, all three offenders would have received life sentences.
“If they were to be let out early, there would be another outcry,” says Adlam. “The public are very much behind keeping them in and Andrew being remembered for the right reasons.”
She adds: “The thought of those responsible for killing Andrew being released from prison already really impacts my thoughts, and worries me for the future. The thought of them getting an early release is just unthinkable.”
The letter Adlam received from her victim liaison officer said: “As you may have seen reported in the news, the Sentencing Act 2026 will change how some prison sentences for adults are managed.
“These changes have been introduced following an independent review, with the aim of improving the effectiveness of sentencing and better managing offenders in the community.
“I understand that receiving this information may be difficult, and we recognise the lasting impact the offence may have had on you. I wanted to assure you that there is no immediate action for you to take at this time.
“You will receive a further letter about this by the end of August, which will confirm if changes will or will not be made to the release date for an offender in your case.”
Adlam says: “We do not have an end date for the loss of Andrew in such a horrifying manner. Learning to live without him is the hardest thing I’ve ever lived with and will live with for the rest of my life.”
Adlam, 59, who says that Andrew’s father, Philip, feels the same as she does, gave herself a “permanent memorial” to Andrew two years after his death when she had a tattoo on her arm that had Andrew’s collar number – 7605 – incorporated into a design of, appropriately, forget-me-nots.
Her anger is sharpened by what she remembers from the aftermath of the trial. During the trial, Harper’s killers were seen laughing as they left the court. “They celebrated when they went in,” she says. “Can you imagine how it makes me feel to know how they will be celebrating if they get out early?”
Adlam says she has not “received anything to indicate remorse” from her son’s killers or their family. “The justice system needs to think of the victims – and there are many of us [who] have had a bomb thrown into our lives through what happened to Andrew.”
Even if Burnham prevents the early release of her son’s killers, “it’s not just about us”, she says. “There must be hundreds of families feeling this.
“They need to get a grip of the prisons and where it’s going wrong. Above all, think of Andrew and how he would feel about the early release. I know how he would feel.”
Speaking about Labour’s plans that could see Andrew’s killers released, a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “This Government is fixing the prison crisis it inherited – building 14,000 more prison places and reforming sentencing so we can always lock up dangerous criminals. Without this decisive action, prisons will run out of space entirely as early as November and we will be unable to lock up serious offenders at all.
“Public safety and supporting victims is our top priority. Offenders who a judge has deemed the most dangerous are automatically blocked from early release, and prisoners who behave badly while behind bars face being locked up for longer.
“We are also launching the biggest expansion of tagging in history, rolling out tough new restriction zones to block offender movements, banning offenders from driving, pubs and events such as football matches.”
Yet after reports that almost 9,000 criminals who should have ankle tags are roaming the streets without one, Adlam says she has “no faith in the tagging system” and believes it would be “a stupid move” to let the early releases under the Sentencing Act go ahead.
She adds: “People are getting a free pass for crime in this country. I like to try to be proud of my country, but this isn’t something to be proud of. There’s a lot going wrong.”
In a country plagued by crime, she also fears the consequences will be felt not only by victims but by those who continue to serve on the front line.
Her son was a hero policeman who died in the line of duty. Now, Labour’s early release scheme has made Debbie wonder: “Why would you want to be a police officer in this climate?”
Recommended
Almost 9,000 victims warned attackers will be freed early
