Teen accused of murdering Pc Andrew Harper claimed was watching Fast & Furious on night of killing, court hears

Victim: the trial over the alleged murder of Pc Andrew Harper has been paused (Picture: PA)

A teenage driver claimed he had been watching the film Fast & Furious on the night he allegedly dragged Pc Andrew Harper to his death behind a car, a court has heard.

The Old Bailey was told that Henry Long, 19, drove at speeds of 42.5mph for more than a mile after Pc Harper became entangled in a strap attached to his Seat Toledo on the evening of August 15 last year.

The 28-year-old officer had been trying to apprehend Long and two other youths after they made off with a quad bike from a home in Berkshire, it is said.

But in a prepared statement after his arrest, Long said he had been at a caravan site that evening watching the movies Fast & Furious and the Goonies.

Henry Long sits in the Old Baily (file photo) (Elizabeth Cook/PA)

The teenager and his fellow passengers Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers - both 18 - have denied murder but admitted conspiring to steal the £10,000 bike.

Long has also pleaded guilty to Pc Harper’s manslaughter, jurors have been told.

On the second day of the retrial, prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw QC told how the defendants were arrested soon after the Seat was located by a police helicopter at Four Houses Corner travellers’ site.

After being told a police officer had died, Long allegedly said words along the lines of: “Look at me. Do I look like a murderer?”

Henry Long, 19, Albert Bowers, 18, and Jessie Cole, 18, as they sit in the dock at the Old Bailey in London (Elizabeth Cook/PA)

Later, in a prepared statement, he said he had been at the caravan site that evening.

He said: “We watched DVDs. One was Goonies, Fast & Furious. I went bed I think around 10.30pm. Police woke me up. I had been outside just for a cigarette but otherwise had not left.”

On being charged, Long allegedly said: “I don’t give a f*** about any of this.”

Mr Laidlaw told jurors that Long now accepts he was the driver of the car but was “still refusing to face up to the whole truth”.

He said Long maintains he did not know he was dragging anybody for the mile or so he drove down to the A4.

But the prosecutor suggested the evidence would show “he knew perfectly well he was dragging a person behind the car – furthermore it could only have been a police officer from the unmarked car that had confronted them in Admoor Lane”.

The retrial of Long and Bowers, from Mortimer, near Reading, and Cole, of Aldermaston, continues.