Daily Mirror - 17.08.2019

mirror.co.uk SATURDAY 17.08.2019 DAILY MIRROR^5

DM1ST

TRIES TO STOP BURGLAR GANG’

Pictures: MARK LORD PHOTOGRAPHY

ANALYSIS

ON DUTY

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott

said she was “incredibly saddened” by

PC Harper’s death.

The Labour MP added: “All my

thoughts are with the family, friends

and colleagues of the courageous PC

Andrew Harper.”

Richard Benyon, Conservative MP

for Newbury, it was an “absolute

tragedy” and he hoped “those respon-

sible will be brought to justice”.

Anyone with information should

call police on 101.

[email protected]

@tpettifor

shocked and appalled” by the death of

“brave” PC Harper.

He said: “My thoughts are with PC

Harper’s family, friends and colleagues

at this terrible time.

“It is the most powerful reminder

that police officers up and down the

country put themselves at risk every

single day to keep us safe. They have

my absolute support.”

Andy Fiddler, from the Thames

Valley Police Federation, said it was

“totally devastating”, adding: “All our

thoughts are with the family, friends

and close colleagues of PC Harper.”

in Birmingham last week. The married

42-year-old West Midlands traffic

officer is said to be have suffered

“potentially life-changing” injuries.

Mr Campbell said police were facing

rising levels of violence.

He said: “In these extreme circum-

stances, it’s resulted in the loss of

Andrew’s life, so from that point of

view, is policing getting more violent?

“There’s a challenge for society in

terms of the easy recourse to violence.

“But, from a policing of view, we

know there are associated risks.”

Boris Johnson said he was “deeply

Death toll

in line of

duty hits 27

THE death of PC Andrew Harper brings

the number of British police officers to

have died in the line of duty

since 2000 to 27.

Most recent was PC Keith

Palmer, right, who was stabbed

in March 2017 by Khalid Masood during

the Westminster Bridge terror attack.

PC Fiona Bone, 32, and PC

Nicola Hughes, 23, left, were

murdered by Dale Cregan in

Greater Manchester in 2012. In

1966, Harry Roberts shot DS

Christopher Head, 30, DC David

Wombwell, 25, and PC Geoffrey Fox,

41, in West London. PC Keith

Blakelock was hacked to death in

the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots.

regarded, popular member of the

team”, Mr Campbell said. His death

represented a “significant loss” to

Thames Valley Police and “also to his

colleagues and friends”, he added.

Mr Campbell said: “The officer was

well-known across the force so it is felt

very personally by the whole police

family across the UK.”

He paid tribute to other officers and

members of the fire and ambulance

services who attended “what was obvi-

ously a distressing scene”.

It comes after PC Gareth Phillips

was run over by a suspected car thief

Make sure that

we learn from

awful incident

STABBED PC Stuart Outten

THE horrendous murder of PC

Andrew Harper raises questions

about how the danger to police

officers doing their job is managed.

For now our thoughts are with

his family, colleagues and friends,

but we must also make sure lessons

are learned from this tragedy.

Full details of the awful incident

are not known but some things are

clear. PC Harper was responding to

reports of a burglary even though

he was a roads policing officer.

With so few patrols in many rural

areas now this is not unusual – the

nearest patrols attend, regardless

of their actual role.

It is not clear whether he and his

colleague attended the scene of the

burglary and encountered the

suspects leaving, or whether they

spotted them being driven away.

What is known is that at some

point PC Harper was struck and

fatally injured by a vehicle,

presumably as he attempted to

stop it and speak to the occupants.

INJURED

There has been no mention of

whether other police units were in

attendance, but it would not

surprise me to find he and his

colleague were on their own.

Sadly it is getting ever more

common for offenders in vehicles

to deliberately drive at or over

police officers who try to stop them.

Just a week or so ago PC Gareth

Phillips was seriously injured in

such an incident in the West

Midlands force area.

This incident and the attack on

Metropolitan Police constable

Stuart Outten, 28, who was stabbed

by a suspect allegedly armed with a

machete in Leyton, East London

shows just how vulnerable to attack

our patrolling officers are.

The cuts to police numbers mean

there is less assistance available

and it is often further away when

every minute counts.

The devastating murder of PC

Harper highlights the risks that

brave officers across the country

take every day to keep us all safe.

The new Government urgently

needs to make sure their promises

about increasing the numbers of

police officers actually happen.

THE WEDDING

PC Harper in uniform

PC Harper and Lissie after tying the knot

PC Harper appears to have

been hit close to the junction

of Lambdens Hill and the A4.

Tyre marks can be seen running

for around 25 yards across the

A4 and into Ufton Lane opposite.

Two forensic tents show

where PC Harper’s body

may have been left.

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BY PETER KIRKHAM , EX-MET POLICE

DETECTIVE CHIEF INSPECTOR