PM asks justice secretary to keep PC Harper's killers in jail
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is seeking to prevent the early release of two men convicted of the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper. The government is exploring legal avenues to exclude them from a prison overcrowding scheme.
Why it matters
The case highlights the tension between managing prison capacity and ensuring justice for victims of crimes against emergency service workers.
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 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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