PC Andrew Harper: Colleagues to lead minute’s silence for officer who died on duty

Colleagues of PC Andrew Harper will lead a minute’s silence for him later this morning.

Thames Valley Police will hold the tribute at 11am and police officers across the country are set to join the act of remembrance.

The 28-year-old, who was based in Abingdon in Oxfordshire, died on 15 August while responding to reports of a burglary near Sulhamstead in Berkshire.

He had married his partner Lissie just four weeks earlier and the couple were about to go on their honeymoon.

Members of the public have responded by bringing gifts, food or leaving tributes to their own police forces in a show of support.

Jed Foster, 20, has been charged with PC Harper’s murder and is in custody following a court appearance earlier this week.

His defence lawyer Rob Jacques has said Foster denies “any involvement in the horrific murder” and that he “urges the police to follow all lines of enquiry, and for the public to come forward and co-operate”.

Meanwhile, Paul Bone, whose police officer daughter Fiona was killed on duty, said he had not been able to sleep after hearing about PC Harper’s death last week.

Fiona and her colleague PC Nicola Hughes were both shot dead while responding to a hoax emergency call in east Manchester in 2012.

Mr Bone told Sky News: “You can’t go to work and say I’m going to get killed today… everybody has the right to come home at the end of the shift.

“You can’t cater for idiots with guns, idiots with knives, people who don’t want to stop their car when they’re told to. There’s no respect for the police anymore.”

Even though the man who murdered his daughter was jailed for life, Mr Bone believes soft sentencing has weakened the police.

“There’s very little deterrent anymore and although the police are citizens in uniform they need a deterrent to back them up – and that deterrent is fast disappearing,” Mr Bone said.

Sir Peter Fahy was Greater Manchester Police’s chief constable at the time Fiona and Nicola were killed and, now retired, he chairs the COPS charity supporting bereaved families.

He told Sky News: “One thing I found when the two officers were killed in Greater Manchester was that officers immediately felt able to talk about their emotions, there were lots of tears, there were a lot of hugs.

“People spoke very freely – we put in a very comprehensive welfare plan to enable them to do that.

“I actually asked if that could continue and it didn’t because policing is actually about going and dealing with often very violent and traumatic incidents and you then hide your emotions, you then actually put that away and get onto the next incident.

“I think the police service is recognising that, long-term, that’s not healthy and sadly it’s revealing a huge impact of mental health within police officers.”

(c) Sky News 2019: PC Andrew Harper: Colleagues to lead minute’s silence for officer who died on duty