A witness who saw PC Andrew Harper’s body being dragged behind a car in August 2019 mistook it for a bloodied deer carcass, such was the gravity of the young officer’s injuries.

PC Harper, 28, a recently married Thames Valley officer, had been responding to the theft of a quad bike in Berkshire. His ankles became caught in a loop of tow strap trailing behind the thieves’ car.

He was dragged for more than a mile at over 42mph and swung ‘from side to side like a pendulum’ as the gang fled along an unlit country road. His uniform was ‘ripped and stripped’ from his body, leaving him naked apart from his socks, boots and remnants of his trousers.

I was a serving counter-terrorism officer when PC Harper was killed. News of his death spread through police stations across the country with a sense of horror I have rarely witnessed.

I recount these harrowing details for a reason – so that you can understand the depravity of those responsible for his death.

And yet this week the Ministry of Justice confirmed that two of Harper’s killers – Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, who were both 17 at the time and passengers in the car – are now eligible for release after serving just half of their 13-year sentences. Neither has ever shown the slightest remorse.

The driver, Henry Long, who got a 16-year sentence, is mercifully not eligible.

PC Andrew Harper and Lissie Harper were married just four weeks before the Thames Valley Police officer was killed in 2019 while responding to an incident. His ankles became caught in a tow rope attached to the thieves' car and he was dragged for more than a mile at over 42mph

Jessie Cole (left) and Albert Bowers, both 17 at the time, were passengers in the car and handed 13 years in custody for manslaughter. But, they may now be eligible for early release

PC Harper’s mother, Debbie Adlam, said receiving a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) letter informing her that the killers’ sentences could be reduced made her ‘feel sick’. ‘It feels like a slap in the face and an insult,’ she added.

In a pathetic attempt to quell the growing anger yesterday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham hastily put out a smoke-and-mirrors statement pointing out that Long will not benefit from the early release changes. But nobody was claiming he would. PC Harper’s family are far from alone in their despair. In recent months, the MoJ has sent thousands of such letters to victims warning that the offenders who attacked them – or killed their loved ones – could qualify for early release under Labour’s Sentencing Act, passed earlier this year.

Under the legislation, many prisoners will be released after serving just one-third of their sentence for ‘good behaviour’. More serious offenders – including killers, rapists and paedophiles – will be eligible for release halfway through their sentences instead of the current two-thirds, including those who have been jailed for well over a decade.

The MoJ confirmed that more than 6,000 criminals will become eligible for earlier release when the reforms begin this autumn.

This is not justice – it’s abject betrayal. And yet, for Labour, it all seems to be one big twisted joke.

Only hours after the news came of Cole and Bowers’s potential early release, footage emerged from a drinks reception outside No 10 which caught Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting and incoming Justice Secretary Alex Norris chatting about the scheme.

In a ‘hot mic’ incident that has embarrassed Mr Burnham’s nascent administration, Mr Streeting can be heard calling Mr Norris ‘the enemy now’ and going on to say ‘[Norris] wants to let them all out’ – appearing to reference the early release plans – which is met with howls of laughter from these Cabinet ministers.

The prospect of dangerous criminals being let back onto Britain’s streets is nothing but a grotesque punchline for this government.

I was a serving counter-terrorism officer when he was killed. News of his death spread through police stations across the country with a sense of horror, writes former Met officer Paul Birch

Personally, I’m struggling to find anything remotely funny about Streeting’s ‘gag’. Particularly when his comments came weeks after the ringleader of the Rochdale rape gang, Shabir Ahmed, was released after serving just 14 years of a 22-year sentence.

One of his victims, who was raped and sexually exploited by Ahmed and wants to remain anonymous, said that she didn’t sleep for three days after hearing the news, terrified her rapist would find a way to track her down.

This is the reality of early release schemes. They were born out of sheer necessity, so we were told, due to the overcrowding of our prisons.

That in itself is an extraordinary failure of government: plans to deliver 20,000 more prison places in England and Wales by the mid-2020s have been delayed until 2031 and are expected to cost £4.2billion more than budgeted.

So instead of tackling the root causes of the crisis, ministers have chosen the easy and quickest option, transferring the potential dangers to innocent communities.

As a policeman of 24 years, who has held roles in response units, public order and intelligence, as well as counter-terrorism in 2009, I can tell you that far too many of these criminals will go on to commit further crimes. When they are violent or predatory, the consequences can be catastrophic.

In October 2025, a knife-wielding criminal who had been released under Labour’s 2024 emergency prison overcrowding scheme – which saw 1,750 prisoners let out early – was later charged with murder.

That came after the MoJ admitted to accidentally releasing the asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu, who had been jailed after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, under the same scheme.

And who can forget those scenes of jubilation outside HMP Wandsworth and HMP Nottingham as prisoners released early celebrated their good fortunes by popping champagne corks? These are the sort of menacing individuals to whom any sign of weakness in our justice system is an invitation to offend again.

Andrew's widow Lissie Harper lays a wreath at a memorial in Reading dedicated to his memory

Labour ministers insist there will be robust probation supervision. Offenders released on licence can, in theory, be recalled to prison if they breach their conditions or their risk escalates.

But the fact is that our probation system is not fit for purpose. From 2024-2025, the service met just 26 per cent of its performance targets; and only last year, the Chief Inspector of Probation warned the service has ‘too few staff, with too little experience and training, managing too many cases’.

Now ministers expect that same overstretched service to supervise thousands more offenders released early.

Already, overworked probation staff lose an average of 14 working days a year to sickness – up almost 50 per cent since 2021. At the same time, staff are leaving faster than they can be replaced.

In other words, the ‘safeguards’ simply aren’t there. Is it any wonder victims are so distraught?

In his statement yesterday, Mr Burnham insisted that new Justice Secretary Mr Norris will carry out a ‘wider review’ of the policy to release inmates early.

A review is not enough. If our new PM really wants to do justice by victims, he must get rid of this dangerous scheme entirely.

It is at best a sticking plaster which does nothing to tackle the underlying problems: years of underinvestment in prison places, a record court backlog and poor rehabilitation.

Last year, there were almost 11,000 foreign nationals taking up spaces in British prisons. If all of them were deported, Labour’s early release scheme wouldn’t be necessary.

At worst, it is a calculated gamble with public safety – and it is all of us who will live with the consequences.

Paul Birch is a commentator and former counter-terrorism specialist in the Metropolitan Police.