PC Andrew Harper murder trial: Policeman dragged along ‘like rag doll’ by car before he died

A policeman was thrown around “like a rag doll” as he was dragged along by a car driven by suspected thieves before he died, a murder trial has heard.

PC Andrew Harper suffered “utterly catastrophic” injuries after responding to the reported theft of a quad bike from a home near the village of Sulhamstead in Berkshire last summer.

The officer’s feet became tangled up in a crane strap which was attached to the boot of a Seat Toledo, the Old Bailey heard.

The strap had been used to steal the bike, and he was pulled along for more than a mile, jurors were told.

PC Harper, who had recently married, was breathing when he was found in the road but was pronounced dead at the scene.

One witness Jack Whittenham thought the victim was a wounded deer as he saw the officer being pulled along on the ground with arms “flailing around”, the prosecution said.

Prosecutor Brian Altman QC told the court: “It was Mr Whittenham who thought it was a bloodied deer attached to the car, but he quickly realised it was someone trapped by both ankles with arms flailing around, as he described it, like a rag doll, being dragged around the road.

“He saw the whole body striking the kerb on the other side of the road.”

His belongings, including police badge, ID card, driving licence and pocket notebook, were found along the route where he was dragged.

The officer’s mobile phone was on a grass verge near a wooden stake that had been “scythed down” when PC Harper’s body struck it, Mr Altman said.

Marks on the road showed evidence of the “violence” of the driving, he told the jury.

Henry Long, 18, from Mortimer, Reading, and two 17-year-olds, who cannot be named for legal reasons, all deny murdering the Thames Valley Police officer on 15 August last year.

The court heard that Long was driving, one of the teenagers was allegedly next to him in the passenger seat, and the other was riding the quad bike, which was being towed by a boot lid hinge with a crane strap that formed a loop.

The quad bike rider disconnected the strap, and as PC Harper tried to stop him from jumping through the Seat’s rear passenger window, the officer’s feet became tangled in the crane strap, and he was dragged along as Long drove off, the trial heard.

Jurors were told that, as the alleged killers tried to escape, they drove straight at a police car after heading back towards the officer’s vehicle as they tried “not to get caught at all costs”.

Mr Altman said the officer pursuing them was forced to veer to the left as the vehicle passed, narrowly missing him.

Long has admitted manslaughter, which the younger boys deny, and all three have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal a quad bike.

The trial continues.

(c) Sky News 2020: PC Andrew Harper murder trial: Policeman dragged along ‘like rag doll’ by car before he died