PC Murder Trial Postponed Due To Coronavirus

30 March 2020

The trial of the three people accused of murdering Thames Valley Police officer Andrew Harper has been postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Eighteen-year-old Henry Long and two other 17-year-old boys who cannot be named for legal reasons had denied the PC’s murder as the trial at the Old Bailey began on 9 March.

However, the trial has now been halted, with a review meeting date pencilled in for 1stJune after another person had to quit the jury to self-isolate.

Two other jurors had previously had to stay at home.

Justice Edis told the BBC that he had postponed the trial with a ‘heavy heart’ and ‘great regret’.

He said it was ‘not sensible’ to continue once the third person had had to quit their place on the jury because of the fear of spreading COVID-19.

He added that although the law permits a trial to continue with nine jurors, the trial into PC Harper’s death had not reached the end of the prosecution case and that the three defendants had a ‘right to give and to call evidence’.

He told the BBC: “The trial cannot finish in the immediate future, and the risk that we will lose another juror or some other person who is essential to its continuation is so high that I have decided that it is no longer in the public interest to take the risk of continuing to convene at court.”

He added how sorry he was for PC Harper’s family that the case couldn’t carry on, but said it needed to be decided on by a jury with more than nine members.

PC Harper, a 28-year-old Thames Valley Police officer, became entangled in a tow rope trailing behind a car in August last year.

Colleagues desperately tried to save him, but he sadly died at the scene near Sulhamstead, in Berkshire.

Long, of Mortimer, Reading, admitted manslaughter and conspiracy to steal a quad bike but denied murder.

The two youths admitted conspiracy to steal but denied murder and manslaughter. See the full story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-52005044