Every chief constable in the UK has put their name to a joint letter urging Prime Minister Andy Burnham to explore every legal route available to stop Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, the men convicted over the death of PC Andrew Harper, from being released early.
PC Harper, 28, was killed in 2019 after being dragged behind a getaway car for more than a mile near Sulhamstead, Berkshire, following the theft of a quad bike.
Cole and Bowers, who were teenagers at the time, were convicted of manslaughter and given 13-year sentences in 2020. Under this year’s changes to the Sentencing Act, they would become eligible for release once they had served half of that term, with their release date expected next May.
The letter, made public on Tuesday evening, sets out three main asks. First, it repeats a request Burnham has already agreed to look into: finding a lawful way to keep Cole and Bowers in custody. Second, it asks the government to give more weight, when altering sentences in future, to the seriousness of the original offence, arguing that cases involving a death, extreme violence, or an ongoing risk to the public should come with explicit safeguards around victim impact and community safety. Third, it calls for victims and bereaved families to be properly consulted whenever sentencing or release rules change significantly.
The signatories, representing forces across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, argued that releasing PC Harper’s killers early could send a troubling signal about how much the justice system values the risks officers take on behalf of the public, and that failing to intervene could damage public confidence more broadly.
Downing Street’s response pointed back to comments Burnham had already made pledging to do all he could to prevent the pair’s release. Speaking on Tuesday, the PM said he had spent recent days weighing up the advice available to him and had not accepted that further action was impossible, describing it as incumbent on him to use every power at his disposal.
Behind the scenes, however, tension has reportedly grown between No 10 and the Ministry of Justice. Sources there suggest Justice Secretary Alex Norris — only in post a fortnight — has effectively been left to solve a problem the Prime Minister himself once said could not be fixed, after weeks of shifting public statements on the issue. The MoJ is said to have warned that Cole and Bowers cannot legally be singled out for exemption without extending the same treatment to everyone convicted of manslaughter — a group thought to number around 470 people in custody, far more than the prison system could absorb without breaching capacity.
Government sources say officials are instead looking at ways to free up space elsewhere before next May, including housing more male prisoners in repurposed women’s prisons, deporting foreign national offenders, and releasing lower-risk prisoners held under Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences.
A new law introduced after PC Harper’s death now mandates a life sentence for killing an emergency worker, but it cannot be applied retrospectively, so it has no bearing on Cole and Bowers’ case. The driver of the car, Henry Long, was given a longer, 16-year extended sentence and is not affected by the early release scheme.
PC Harper’s mother, Debbie Adlam, said a call from a senior No 10 official had left her with cautious hope, though she was reluctant to place too much trust in reassurances given the changing messaging from government in recent weeks. She has said she is not seeking special treatment for her son’s case specifically, but wants any early release scheme to exclude those who kill emergency workers more broadly. A public petition calling for Cole and Bowers to remain in prison has now passed 900,000 signatures.
