PC Andrew Harper’s mother has issued an urgent message to Andy Burnham as her son’s killers are still set for early release. Speaking to GB News’s Patrick Christys, Debbie Adlam said she is stuck in a “limbo of hope” as the Prime Minister continues to search for a solution to block her son’s killers from being released early from prison.When asked what she would say to Mr Burnham, who is yet to directly speak to Ms Adlam, she said: “Just please don’t let us down again because we are pinning our hopes on this happening. And if it doesn’t, I don’t quite know where it leaves us.”She said the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff had got in touch with her, which she described as “welcome”, but had not spoken to Mr Burnham directly.
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Ms Adlam said: “We kind of now have this limbo of hope again, I suppose… I feel like I’ve been here before.”PC Harper was killed after investigating the theft of a £10,000 quad bike in August 2019.Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, then 17, alongside Henry Long, 18, tried to escape in a car in Sulhamstead, Berkshire.PC Harper’s ankles were caught in the car’s tow rope and he was dragged along the road at 43mph for over a mile.Cole and Bowers were both handed a 13-year sentence for manslaughter.At the time of their sentencing, the pair were pictured smiling as they were taken away. Ms Adlam recalled seeing the pictures and videos of her son’s killers acting in this way, describing it as “just vile”. Speaking to the People’s Channel, she said: “We’ve all seen the pictures and the videos of them sticking their tongue out… I’ve just got a vision of them coming out and just seeing that all over again. It’s just vile, quite honestly.”LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:Andy Burnham orders Justice Secretary to draw up plans to block early release of PC Harper’s killersMurder investigation launched after man killed in shooting outside popular London pubBradford teenagers rob classmate at knifepoint then humiliate him online – but are spared jailTheir co-defendant, Long, received a 16-year sentence, but would not be eligible to walk free this year under the scheme.As Cole and Bowers have served half their sentence, they would be eligible for early release under Labour’s plans.The prospect of their release sparked outrage among the public and police, with more than 950,000 people signing a petition demanding they stay behind bars.Mr Burnham has been working on ensuring PC Harper’s killers are exempt from early release, but No10 has gone back-and-forth on what is possible.Yesterday afternoon, Downing Street admitted it was “not possible” to exempt “one or two offenders” convicted of manslaughter from the early release scheme.However, later on that evening, a Government source told GB News Mr Burnham had been “holding daily calls on this for the past week on how to resolve” the issue, with other sourcs saying he was “increasingly confident” a solution would be found.A Government spokesman said last night: “The Prime Minister has asked the Justice Secretary to work through further options to keep a greater number of the most serious offenders in prison, including the killers of PC Harper.” Ms Adlam described how Cole and Bowers are Category A prisoners – high-risk offenders whom prison staff believe will harm someone once released or may try to escape.”If they have any possibility of being released and still being category A prisoners, then that makes a mockery of that system,” she said. Discussing the wider issue of early prisoner release, PC Harper’s mother said it will “affect the whole of the population in one way or another”. She said: “We are all reliant on our police forces and emergency service workers to keep us safe and look after us.”If they start to leave, which is a possibility… I’ve seen posts saying, ‘I couldn’t work under this Government if they let us down like this.’ They can’t strike, there’s restrictions on what they can do, so the option is they leave the force.”Can you imagine if that became a big thing, that people were starting to leave?”We’re just going to end up in a very chaotic country, where crime is actually quite horrendous at the moment. We’ve clearly had a lot of issues recently. What do we do without them?”Ms Adlam concluded the interview by thanking Andy Burnham, acknowledging the justice and prison system is “difficult”. She said: “I would like to thank Andy Burnham, really, for at least coming out with what he has.”I hope he doesn’t have any more issues with it — I understand it’s a difficult system.”But at the end of the day, we’ve got this petition, it’s 50,000 off a million now, and this has only been set up on Tuesday. So there’s a strength of feeling which is loud and clear.”I just don’t want to be let down again. That’s the big thing that’s coming across to me here — just please, please don’t get let me down again.”Above that, don’t let Andrew down.”
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