PM asks justice secretary to find way to keep PC Harper's killers in jail
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is seeking legal avenues to prevent the early release of two men convicted of the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper. The government is attempting to exclude these specific offenders from a broader prison overcrowding relief scheme.
Why it matters
This highlights the tension between managing prison capacity and public expectations regarding justice for serious violent crimes.
Image source, PA Media Image caption, Albert Bowers (left) and Jessie Cole (centre), seen leaving court in 2019, are eligible to be freed under the early release scheme
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has told his justice secretary to find a way to exclude PC Andrew Harper's killers from an early release scheme designed to ease prison overcrowding.
Burnham is confident a solution can be found to remove Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, who were sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter in 2020, from the government plan, the BBC has been told.
Downing Street had earlier warned that it would not be possible to exclude "one or two offenders" convicted of manslaughter from the early release of prisoners.
PC Harper, 28, from Wallingford, Oxfordshire, died in 2019 when he was dragged behind the getaway car of three teenagers who had fled the scene of a quad bike theft in Berkshire.
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