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Andy Burnham has said PC Andrew Harper’s killer will not be released from prison early.
The Prime Minister, who entered Number 10 yesterday, appears to have dismissed speculation that the killers could walk free under the Ministry of Justice’s (MOJ) early-release scheme.
He said the main perpetrator in PC Harper’s death ‘will not be subject to any early release’.
Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole strapped PC Harper, 28, to the back of a car and dragged him for more than a mile along a country road in 2019.
The police officer had tried to stop the group towing a stolen quad bike in Sulhamstead, a village in Berkshire.
Bowers and Cole, who were passengers in the car and 17 years old at the time, were jailed for 13 years the following year for manslaughter.
Earlier, PC Harper’s mother described the prospect of her son’s killers being released as an ‘insult’.
Debbie Adlam said she received a letter from the MOJ warning that Bowers and Cole could be freed.
She told The Telegraph: ‘It makes me feel sick. Andrew’s life doesn’t get to come back. It feels like a slap in the face and an insult.’
The third man involved in PC Harper’s death, driver Henry Long, was jailed for 16 years and is not eligible for the scheme.
Adlam added that people are ‘getting a free pass for crime’.
The programme will begin in September and will see more than 5,000 offenders released over the following 10 months to free up prison space.
Some serious offenders will be released after serving half their jail time if they have not committed serious disciplinary breaches in prison.
Those convicted of less serious offences could be freed after serving just a third of their sentence.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has considered excluding rapists and child groomers from the policy, but as it is enshrined in the 2026 Sentencing Act, any changes would require a fresh law.
The Police Federation for England and Wales has also criticised the prospect of Bowers and Cole’s early release as ‘disgusting’.
Deputy national chair, Brian Booth, said: ‘Police officers from across the country stood side by side to honour Andrew Harper at his funeral.
‘They and every serving officer will be utterly sickened at the prospect of Bowers and Cole being back on the streets so soon.’
Following his death, PC Harper’s widow Lissie Harper campaigned for harsher sentences for the manslaughter of emergency workers on duty.
Harper’s Law introduced mandatory life sentences for anyone who commits the manslaughter of an emergency worker on duty.
An MoJ spokesman said: ‘This was a horrific crime, and our deepest sympathies are with PC Andrew Harper’s family and friends.
‘In 2024, the country was facing a prison crisis and a total breakdown of law and order, with judges ordered to stop jailing dangerous criminals.
‘This government is committed to public safety: we are building prison places at the fastest rate since the Victorian era, and taking the difficult decisions needed to lock up the most dangerous offenders.’
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