Debbie Adlam, the mother of murdered police officer Andrew Harper, says a telephone call from Downing Street about a controversial early-release scheme has given her a measure of hope that her son's killers might remain behind bars beyond January.
Adlam told BBC Breakfast that she had spoken with Andy Burnham's deputy chief of staff, who relayed that the prime minister was determined to do "everything he can" to stop Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers from being freed halfway through their sentences.
"For me, it's hope, but I can't afford to be too hopeful."
She stressed that she was not seeking preferential treatment for her son's case specifically, but rather wanted anyone convicted of killing an emergency worker to be excluded entirely from the early-release provisions.
What happened to PC Harper?
Thames Valley Police officer Andrew Harper, 28, from Wallingford, Oxfordshire, died in 2019 after being dragged behind a getaway car driven by teenagers who had just stolen a quad bike in Berkshire. According to a Telegraph report, the stolen bike was worth around £10,000, and Harper was dragged for more than a mile along country lanes at speeds exceeding 50 mph. The same report notes that the trial judge described the offending as "as close to murder as you can get."
Cole and Bowers, who were 17 at the time of the killing according to a later broadcaster's follow-up report, were convicted of manslaughter at the Old Bailey in 2020 and sentenced to 13 years each. Under changes made this year to the Sentencing Act, they are now due to become eligible for release from custody in January, having served only half their term rather than the two-thirds previously required for their category of serious violent offenders.
Why is the government under pressure to act?
Downing Street initially indicated it would not be possible to carve out exceptions for individual manslaughter cases within a scheme designed to relieve prison overcrowding. That position has since shifted: Burnham has reportedly instructed his justice secretary to find a mechanism for excluding Cole and Bowers specifically.
The prime minister later said in a statement that he was "increasingly confident" that expanding prison capacity "will allow us to reduce the number of people released early," adding that in cases such as PC Harper's killers, the goal was to "prevent their early release altogether."
This latest intervention follows earlier disappointment expressed by the family. As reported in our earlier coverage, Adlam had previously described the scheme as another letdown, and in an even earlier piece she called it an insult that the two men might qualify for early release at all.
How has the family responded to the shifting messaging?
Adlam said the back-and-forth between conflicting government statements had left her increasingly frustrated and her family unsettled.
"I think the fact it's actually come from Downing Street, I've got to try and have some faith in it, but at the same time I've got to protect my own feelings."
She also questioned the pace and rigour of the process.
"Everybody is watching this. This is obviously extremely personal to us but it's to do with the country as a whole really. This is really vital to get right, it feels like a hash, like a rush job."
On the sentences originally handed down, she added:
"They weren't given extreme sentences and I'm only asking for them to do what they were given, I'm not asking for anything more than they were sentenced."
In a later interview reported by a broadcaster, Adlam said her son would have been "devasted and let down" by the prospect of his killers' early release, and described the government's latest intervention as "a good start" but insisted it was "not enough," according to the same report.
What do police representatives say?
Aileen O'Connor, chairman of Thames Valley Police Federation, said news that Burnham might exclude Cole and Bowers from the scheme provided a "little glimmer of hope."
"Police officers up and down this country run towards danger, they put themselves on the line every single day and Andrew Harper paid the ultimate sacrifice for the job that he loved and the badge he wore."
"We need to see the government protecting us because we're getting battered all over the show every single day."
Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner said ministers were still weighing options for addressing the prisons crisis while trying to prevent the early release of PC Harper's killers.
"The trauma that PC Harper's family has been through, and other victims who are watching this crisis unfold in our prisons, is unacceptable."
"The prime minister has said that those serious offenders, like the ones that killed PC Harper, he doesn't want to see them released early and he has tasked the justice secretary to look at that and to come to parliament in September so that we can do everything we possibly can to stop that from happening."
How does this fit into the wider early-release debate?
The controversy stems from a broader government overhaul of early-release rules intended to ease prison overcrowding, which initially left manslaughter offenders such as Cole and Bowers eligible for release at the halfway point of their sentences, according to a report cited by a national broadcaster. Subsequent revisions to the scheme removed rapists and serious child sexual offenders from eligibility, but manslaughter convictions were not affected by that change, the same report says. Our own earlier coverage confirms this: rapists and child sex offenders were barred from the early release scheme, which is due to restart in October following a pause and review, though the family has said they remain bitterly disappointed that killers such as Cole and Bowers still fall within its scope.
PC Harper's widow, Lissie Harper, said last week that she "will not give up" and urged people to back a petition opposing the men's early release.
"Hopefully we can make the current government come to their senses and realise we cannot put people like this back on our streets."
"Justice should mean justice and serving the sentence given."
More than 900,000 people have signed the petition, launched by Thames Valley Police Federation, which describes the possibility of early release for Cole and Bowers as an "insult."
What happens next?
The justice secretary is expected to report back to parliament in September on options for preventing the early release of the most serious offenders, including PC Harper's killers, as Rayner indicated. No specific date for a final decision on Cole and Bowers' release has yet been confirmed.
Key Facts
- PC Andrew Harper, 28, died in 2019 after being dragged behind a getaway car following a quad bike theft in Berkshire.
- Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers were sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter at the Old Bailey in 2020 and were reportedly 17 at the time of the killing.
- Under current Sentencing Act changes, they would become eligible for release in January after serving half their term instead of two-thirds.
- Prime Minister Andy Burnham has tasked the justice secretary with finding a way to exclude serious offenders like Cole and Bowers from the scheme.
- More than 900,000 people have signed a petition opposing their early release.
