The first man charged over the killing of PC Andrew Harper landed himself in trouble with “sick banter” when he pretended to be involved in the fatal car chase.
Jed Foster, 21, was arrested and charged with the murder of the Berkshire officer as well as conspiracy to steal a quad bike and spent five weeks in custody.
Police were sure they had caught the culprit after finding messages on Mr Foster’s phone which appeared to identify him as the driver of the car which had dragged PC Harper to his death.
But the case was dropped and he was set free after it emerged that Mr Foster had an “electronic alibi” for the night of the killing and was not at the scene of PC Harper's death.
Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay said texts from his phone were “on the face of it highly incriminating”, including reference to a “bad chase”, being pursued by a helicopter, and “ramming”.
One text read “F***, this could be it. This isn’t Jed texting, he’s driving. He said don’t tell his mum.”
The prosecutor said Mr Foster “was arrested in vicinity of the car used to drag PC Harper”, and had refused to hand over the PIN number to his phone to detectives.
“Police managed to gain access to his telephone and discovered that messages were highly incriminating”, he said.
Mr Foster “was asked about the recovered messages, he said it was ‘stupid sick banter’ to wind his sister.
“At the time the theft took place, and during the end of the period when the thieves’ car was being pursued, the defendant was using his telephone to communicate on social media
“He has an electronic alibi for his phone being used elsewhere.”
Faced with the new phone evidence, the CPS dropped the charges against Mr Foster.
The three real killers of the police officer had been arrested and charged in the meantime, and appeared in court on the same day Mr Foster was cleared.
Jeremy Dean QC, representing Mr Foster, told the court he is not a member of the travelling community, had never been in prison before, and his spell behind bars had been “nothing short of a living nightmare”.
Details of the reasons for Mr Foster’s charge and subsequent release could not be reported at the time due to a court reporting restriction.
