Cop murder trial continues as two jurors drop out

The trial of three teenagers accused of murdering PC Andrew Harper will continue with a jury reduced to ten by the coronavirus panic.

One female juror was sent home on Monday with a ‘horrible cold’, but phoned the Old Bailey yesterday saying she had a temperature and has been self-isolating.

It remains unclear whether she has the virus or not, but she wants to take precautions.

The second, a mother a three-and-a-half-year-old boy, is also remaining at home because her child has developed symptoms.

Mr Justice Edis said: ‘Members of the jury you are ten, as you can see, let me tell you exactly why.

‘The juror who was sitting on the back row to the left, she as you know at the end of last week, had what she thought was a bad cold.

‘She still thought she had a bad cold on Monday when she came in here and she still thought she had a bad cold on Tuesday when she said she had “a horrible cold”.

‘Later she developed a temperature which, as you know is one the symptoms of the virus. At that point I discharged her.

‘So, she has not been in this building since Monday.

‘The second person is not ill, but she also been discharged because she has got a three-and-a-half year with symptoms of coronavirus.’

He told the jury they would go on sitting on the trial until any change in rules were announced by the government.

‘The business of this court is an essential public service,’ the judge said.

‘If there is what they call a “lock-down” in London which means there are different rules imposed, we will just have to see what they are.’

Mr Justice Edis told the court he took a bus to the Old Bailey, saying he believed what he was doing was an ‘essential’ public duty.

Henry Long, 18, of Mortimer, Reading, and two 17-year-olds, who cannot be named, deny the murder of PC Harper, 28, who was responding to calls of a break-in.

The officer was dragged for more than a mile along a narrow country lane after his ankle became snared in a sling which had used to tow a stolen £10,000 Honda quad bike, near the village of Sulhamstead, Berkshire.

Long has admitted manslaughter and conspiracy to steal. The two 17-year-olds have admitted conspiracy to steal.

Bespectacled Thomas King, 21, of Lane End, Bramley, Hants, earlier admitted conspiring to steal the same quad bike belonging to Mr Peter Wallis and will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.

One of the 17-year-olds accused of murdering PC Andrew Harper told his friend: ‘Don’t saying anything’ as he was arrested at his caravan home.

The teenager was discovered with a games controller or remote control in his hand when officers arrived on 15 August shortly after 11pm following the death PC Harper.

Next to the youth were a pair of Hugo Boss trainers which he claimed did not belong to him.

The arresting officer PC Lee Stanbrook did not believe him, and took the shoes away that night when he transported the male to Newbury Police Station, Berks.

Giving evidence the policeman said: ‘I walked into the caravan and [the youth] was sitting on a bed. From memory I think he had a games controller in his hand or a remote control.

‘Basically, I explained to him he was in the vicinity of a serious incident and had been in close proximity to the car which had been involved.

‘At the base of the bed was a pair of Boss trainers. I asked [the youth] if they were his trainers. He said they weren’t. I did not believe him, so I picked them up and took him with them.

‘He told me that someone else was wearing his trainers. Because I did not believe him and there is going to be DNA in them, he said he had tried them on.

‘He said to [his friend]: “Don’t saying anything” or he said something along the lines of: “I am going no comment”.’

The trial continues.

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