Widow’s Heartbreaking Tribute a Year After PC Andrew Harper’s Death
Lissie Harper has penned a deeply emotional tribute to her late husband, PC Andrew Harper, exactly one year after their wedding. The officer was brutally killed after being dragged behind a car for 1.4 miles at an average speed of 42.5 mph.
Deadly Raid Ends in Tragedy
PC Harper was attacked while trying to stop a balaclava-clad raid carried out by Henry Long, Jesse Cole, and Albert Bowers. The trio, armed with weapons including an axe, had just raided a private home and attempted to flee with a £10,000 quad bike.
PC Harper and a colleague intercepted the thieves as they tried to escape. But Long sped off, dragging PC Harper behind the car in a horrific ordeal that shocked the nation.
Lissie’s Moving Words: “I Have Lost The Best Part of Myself”
“Twelve months since I walked down an aisle of incandescent light. Oh, how it feels like only yesterday…” Lissie wrote. “The proud excitement on both our faces, never happier than in that moment when we exchanged vows and bands of gold.
“I will never again know love like that. No one will ever know a love like ours. This day should have been wildly different. Instead of celebrating with you, I am alone in utter disbelief.
“Every cliché my mind could conjure is blindingly accurate. I’ve lost the best part of myself. What I wouldn’t give to be back on that sunny day, your hand in mine, happiness swirling around us.
“I miss you more than is possible. ‘I love you’ doesn’t come close to how my heart aches for yours. I will spend every day never understanding this cruelty. How are the bad allowed to live while perfect souls like you are taken?
“My heart belongs to you forever.”
Justice Controversy: Manslaughter Verdict Sparks Outrage
Long, Cole, and Bowers were convicted of PC Harper’s manslaughter, but many hoped for guilty murder charges.
A female juror was dismissed after being caught smiling and waving at the killers during the trial, raising eyebrows over the case’s handling.
A petition demanding justice surged, quickly amassing 188,268 signatures calling to overturn what many see as a miscarriage of justice.
Debbie Harper, Andrew’s mother, slammed the verdict: “Andrew James Harper is my son. I am disgusted he has been let down. When they crossed the junction on A4, there’s no way they didn’t know he was being thrown against the pavements.”
“Andrew went to work to serve us all. This is how he was repaid.”
After the verdict, the convicted men were seen holding hands, grinning as their families cheered nearby – a sight that shocked many.
Lissie also spoke outside court, sharing her enduring pain and heartbreak over the tragic loss.
Sentencing for Long, Bowers, and Cole is set for Friday, 31st July. Manslaughter carries a maximum life sentence.
