The Killers Who May Be Set Free | PC Andrew Harper

And well, you're a former officer, Mark.

You can, I, I imagine much more easily than me, put yourself in his shoes.

Do you know, as I started to research this, and I was aware of it when it took place, I was able to watch the video, which is the video of the car, police car turning up, and as they turn up, the offender's vehicle is there, and they're trying to hook on this rope to the, um, the vehicle they're trying to steal.

But I was there.

I actually have been in those locations so many times.

And the police officer gets out the car, Andrew Harper gets out the car with the intention of confronting the offenders, and of course, what took place then is absolutely horrific.

He goes to the back of the vehicle.

As he does that, the vehicle starts to drive away, and he gets his foot caught in the rope that they were trying to steal this vehicle from.

And as a result of that, his feet get caught up on it, and the vehicle pulls away at speed with him attached.

And as I watch this video of the police officer, his colleague, who then goes into reverse and starts to, to go back as quickly as he can, turns around, but then it's shocking because as he starts to drive away, he starts to find items of Andrew Harper's clothes on the road.

Yeah.

Well, they clocked the car at forty-two miles an hour.

Andrew was dragged for more than a mile.

I think it's fair to say he, n- even a fit guy like him would've had no chance of surviving.

And of course, then the question is, did the three men, boys in the car know they were dragging the police officer? And that's the crucial question.

And there are so many very strange elements to this case.

So for example, it, the court case begins in March 2020, and we're about to go into lockdown for COVID, and the very first thing that happens is somebody on the jury gets COVID, and then the case is dispersed, and they have to stop it and start it again.

And then during that, because there's a, there's a, an element to this where the, the three lads fled to a traveler encampment, and so there's, there's that sort of undertow in the case.

There were then accusations, I'm taking care how I say this, but there were accusations that criminals had tried to influence the jury, and those accusations never really went away.

And the whole issue was, was it murder? Did they know? Or did they drive away and accidentally kill Harper as he ended up entangled in this, this tow rope? And [sighs] I d- looking at the case, I can't, I just can't believe they could be driving a car with a human being at the back of it.

They know the quad bike isn't there.

The noise that must have made, and for them to say, "Oh, sorry, we didn't know," seems incredible.

Well, they clearly, when they drove away, they knew a police officer had got out of the car, and the police vehicle was there.

So they knew there was a police vehicle.

They knew a police officer got out of the vehicle, and then they drove away at speed.