The partner of Pc Andrew Harper urged him not to confront thieves on foot in the moments before the tragic officer was dragged away by a speeding car, the Old Bailey heard today.
Pc Andrew Shaw had just finished a shift with Pc Harper when they responded to reports of a burglary, coming face-to-face with the culprits’ car on a country lane.
The Thames Valley Police officer told jurors this morning he saw Pc Harper, 28, get out of their car and chase after the thieves, in an apparent attempt to arrest at least one of them.
Pc Shaw said he had told his colleague “not to” leave the car during the dramatic stand-off, as the thieves’ vehicle, a SEAT Toledo, squeezed past them on the narrow lane in a bid to escape.
“Back in the day, 20 years ago, we used to have a saying — don’t get out of the car. If you get out of the car, you risk being run over”, he said. “You also reduce your car’s effectiveness by 50 per cent if it turned into a pursuit, because you have to stop for Pc Harper to get back in.”
The officers had already been “stood down” from duty and were driving back to base when they heard reports of “burglary in progress, men in masks” and Pc Harper answered the call.
Henry Long, 18, and two 17-year-old boys had been trying to steal a £10,000 quad bike from a home near the village of Stanford Dingley, near Reading, and are accused of murdering Pc Harper by dragging him for more than a mile behind their car as they fled the scene.
Pc Shaw was heard over the radio reporting: “My colleague Pc Harper ran after the vehicle. I’ve now lost him.”
A police colleague who found Pc Harper when he eventually became dislodged from the tow rope was heard to say: “Body in the road, body in the road, fell out of the vehicle.”
Pc Shaw continued: “I thought he was trying to get to open the [Toledo’s] door, to drag whoever — if someone was in the back — drag them out of the car. That’s the only plan I could think he had formulated.”
He said Pc Harper’s “feet were whipped from under him”, likening it to a water-skier suddenly being dragged off. “He fell flat on his back”, he said. “I didn’t see him again.”
Pc Harper suffered catastrophic injuries as he was dragged along the road, just after 11pm on August 15 last year.
Long,of Mortimer, Reading, has admitted manslaughter but denies murder. The two 17-year-olds, who cannot be named, deny murder. All three have admitted conspiracy to steal.
The trial continues.
