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| Teenagers guilty of killing PC Andrew Harper | Teenagers guilty of killing PC Andrew Harper |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Three teenagers have been found guilty of the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper, who died after being dragged along a road by a car. | Three teenagers have been found guilty of the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper, who died after being dragged along a road by a car. |
| PC Andrew Harper died from catastrophic injuries after his ankles got caught in a strap trailing behind a vehicle driven by Henry Long, in August 2019. | |
| Long, 19, had earlier admitted manslaughter but was cleared of murder. | |
| Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both 18, were cleared of murder but found guilty at the Old Bailey of manslaughter. | |
| All three are due to be sentenced next Friday. | |
| PC Harper was dragged for more than a mile along country lanes in Berkshire after he and a colleague responded to reports of a quad bike theft, jurors heard. | |
| The 28-year-old newlywed became "lassoed" to the back of a Seat Toledo after he "unwittingly" stepped with both feet into the loop of a tow rope as he tried to apprehend one of the defendants. | |
| Prosecutors said the Abingdon-based roads policing officer was "swung from side to side like a pendulum" after Long sped off to escape the scene. | |
| The court heard the Seat travelled for more than a mile towards the A4 before PC Harper became detached and died in the road. | |
| Large axe | |
| Jonathan Laidlaw QC previously told jurors the defendants were prepared to use force "if met with resistance". | |
| The trio had a large axe, three crowbars and a hammer and were "plainly determined to steal the quad bike" from a home near Stanford Dingley, Mr Laidlaw said. | |
| It was clear they were "intending, if met with resistance, that serious harm would be caused to commit the offence of theft or to secure their escape", the court heard. |