Dominic Raab: Harper’s Law will not be retroactive

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Dominic Raab said the new law providing a mandatory life sentence for offenders who kill emergency services workers while committing crimes will not be retroactive.

The Attorney General’s statement means that police killers Andrew Harper, who died while on duty, will not have their sentences extended.

Lissie Harper, his widow, led a two-year campaign to change the law after he was murdered while answering a late-night burglary call. The Court of Appeal had previously rejected the Public Prosecutor’s attempt to toughen the sentences issued against the officer’s killers.

The Minister of Justice told BBC Breakfast: “This is one of the things that has made us look very carefully and focus on changing the law, but of course it only applies to crimes and penalties in the future. I think this is the right thing to do.”

The so-called Harper’s Act is expected to be applied to the law books through an amendment to the existing Police, Crime, Judgment and Courts Act, meaning it is likely to gain Royal Assent and become law early next year.

Harper, 28, succumbed to his injuries when he was caught in a harness attached to the back of a car and pulled onto a winding country road as the trio fled a quad bike theft scene in Solhamsted, Berkshire, on the night of August 15, 2019.

Henry Long, 19, was sentenced to 16 years in prison, and Jesse Cole and Albert Powers, both 18, were sentenced to 13 years in prison for manslaughter of a Thames Valley police officer. Long, the group’s leader, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, while Cole and Powers convicted their passengers of manslaughter after a trial at the Old Bailey. The three were acquitted of the murder by a jury.

The rulings prompted Harper to pressure the government to better protect frontline emergency services workers.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is currently being considered in the House of Lords and MPs and MPs will have to approve the proposed amendment to introduce the new law as part of the legislation.

Lissie Harper said: “Emergency services workers need extra protection. I know very well how they are at risk and in the depths of danger on a regular basis on behalf of society. This protection is what Harper’s Law will provide, and I am delighted that it will soon become a reality.”

Police officers, National Crime Agency officers, prison officers, custody officers, firefighters and paramedics are all defined as emergency service workers.

Courts should already impose life sentences for premeditated murder, although they can also apply to other violent crimes. A life sentence means that on release the offender can be sent back to prison at any time in his life if he commits another crime, and he must serve at least the minimum sentence imposed by the courts.

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