In 2019 Pc Andrew Harper was dragged to his death by a getaway car, driven by teenage thieves whom he had tried to apprehend.
Pc Harper’s killers showed no remorse during their trial, laughing and joking throughout. When the verdict of manslaughter – rather than murder – was returned, some of their family members cheered as Pc Harper’s wife sobbed.
The 16-year sentence handed out to Henry Long, and the 13-year sentences of Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, were thought shamefully insufficient by Pc Harper’s family. The Government agreed, passing Harper’s Law. This introduced mandatory life sentences for anyone convicted of killing an emergency worker while committing a crime.
Yet far from serving life, Bowers and Cole are eligible to be released as early as this September, due to Labour’s Sentencing Act 2026. More than 5,000 criminals – including killers and rapists – could be freed halfway through their sentences.
Pc Harper’s mother, Debbie Adlam, is right to call this an “insult”. As she told The Telegraph, “it’s a gift for prisoners to be let out early. The cost is to us, the victims, and then the public”, given the extraordinary rate of reoffending.
The Government told Ms Adlam that the early release scheme had been “introduced…with the aim of improving the effectiveness of sentencing”. The public will wonder how releasing offenders absurdly early improves a sentence’s “effectiveness”, unless the desired effect is to encourage yet more criminal activity and undermine faith in the justice system. Pc Harper’s family deserve better.
Any government’s first duty is to protect the public. Why does Labour think releasing violent offenders into society early serves that purpose?
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In 2019 Pc Andrew Harper was dragged to his death by a getaway car, driven by teenage thieves whom he had tried to apprehend.
Pc Harper’s killers showed no remorse during their trial, laughing and joking throughout. When the verdict of manslaughter – rather than murder – was returned, some of their family members cheered as Pc Harper’s wife sobbed.
The 16-year sentence handed out to Henry Long, and the 13-year sentences of Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, were thought shamefully insufficient by Pc Harper’s family. The Government agreed, passing Harper’s Law. This introduced mandatory life sentences for anyone convicted of killing an emergency worker while committing a crime.
Yet far from serving life, Bowers and Cole are eligible to be released as early as this September, due to Labour’s Sentencing Act 2026. More than 5,000 criminals – including killers and rapists – could be freed halfway through their sentences.
Pc Harper’s mother, Debbie Adlam, is right to call this an “insult”. As she told The Telegraph, “it’s a gift for prisoners to be let out early. The cost is to us, the victims, and then the public”, given the extraordinary rate of reoffending.
The Government told Ms Adlam that the early release scheme had been “introduced…with the aim of improving the effectiveness of sentencing”. The public will wonder how releasing offenders absurdly early improves a sentence’s “effectiveness”, unless the desired effect is to encourage yet more criminal activity and undermine faith in the justice system. Pc Harper’s family deserve better.
Any government’s first duty is to protect the public. Why does Labour think releasing violent offenders into society early serves that purpose?