PC Harper’s wife talks of ‘endless sprawling dark’ in heartbreaking letter to her slain husband on wedding anniversary
PC Andrew Harper's widow spoke of "endless sprawling dark" in a heartbreaking letter to her tragic husband on what would have been their first anniversary.
Lissie Harper wrote how she will "never again know love like that" after her childhood sweetheart was killed just four weeks after they wed.
The 29-year-old posted the devastating letter days before the hero cop's three teen killers were cleared of murder.
Albert Bowers, 18, along with 19-year-old Henry Long and Jessie Cole, also 18, were instead found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Lissie, who married PC Harper, 28, in a stunning wedding in Ardington House, wrote: "Twelve months since I walked down an aisle of incandescent light … it feels only yesterday that I stood in front of a vision of hope and happiness and love.
"The tears in your eyes that only I could see and the sheer happiness radiating from mine.
He also posted two two hand-drawn pictures of golfers and semi-literate handwritten notes, the Sunday People reports.
Bowers said: “Mum I know it ain’t a birthday card but I had to send you...
“I know it probley wont the best birthday but I’ll be out one day and we will have a better day wont we.
“Hope you had the best day you could of had.
“I pot two golf piks in that I done while I’ve been sat in me room bored. Love you mum xxxx”
And in a card addressed to his sister, he whinged: “I wish I was out with ya.”
JURY PROTECTED DURING TRIAL
THE case was dogged by alleged attempts to "frustrate" the investigation and fears over jury nobbling, it can now be reported
Supporters of Long, Bowers and Cole had crowded into the public gallery of the Old Bailey as the case got under way in March.
But no sooner had it started, Mr Justice Edis brought the trial to a halt over an alleged potential plot to intimidate jurors.
He ordered extra security measures to protect the jury.
Without divulging details, he said police had received information "that an attempt is being considered by associates of the defendants to intimidate the jury".
The jury was provided with a private room, and anyone entering the public gallery was asked to provide proof of their identity. A third measure was kept secret.
When the case returned for retrial in June, security was stepped up.
Jurors were referred to by number rather than their name to be sworn in and uniformed police were out in force during a jury visit to rural Berkshire with a drone keeeping an eye overhead.
With the end of the retrial in sight, fears for its integrity surfaced on July 20.
An overly friendly juror was seen by a prison officer to mouth "Bye boys" to the defendants in the dock.
The female juror was discharged just a day before the remaining 11 men and women began deliberating on their verdicts.
It came after jurors heard a car driven by Long at "breakneck speed" swung PC Harper "like a pendulum" along a country lane, as he apprehended the teen gang during a botched robbery near Reading, Berks.
The heartless thugs smirked and laughed as his horrific injuries were read out to jurors.
While Bowers was so bored during the trial he fell asleep as the prosecutor showed jurors video footage of the Thames Valley Police officer being dragged to his death.
The teens had tried to steal the £10,000 bike from the home of Peter Wallis in remote Bradfield Southend, when they were apprehended by PC Harper.
The gang had cased the property earlier in the day and later returned masked and armed with an axe, crowbars and a length of pipe to use against anyone in their way.
PC Harper and his colleagues came across the gang driving towards them on narrow Admoor Lane.
Cole unhitched the bike and dived through a passenger window to escape the hero cop who had got out of the unmarked BMW police car.
But PC Harper's ankles then got caught in the tow rope attached to the suspects' getaway car as they drove off.
He was dragged along the stretch of road at up to 60mph by the SEAT in horrendous circumstances.
The court heard that the officer - who was responding to the reported theft four hours after the end of his shift on August 15 last year - would have been rendered unconscious almost immediately and was unable to free himself.
PC Harper’s body was completely naked apart from his socks when discovered by the officer’s horrified colleagues.
The officer was "barely alive" but died at the scene a short time later.
Long initially denied involvement in the incident and told police in a prepared statement that he had been watching The Goonies and Fast And Furious DVDs.
Jurors heard that he told detectives: "Look at me. Do I look like a murderer?"
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Later, on September 18, when Long was charged with murder and conspiracy to steal, he said: "I don't give a f*** about any of this."
But during the trial Long finally admitted he had killed the police officer and said it made him feel “disgraceful”.