The killers of PC Andrew Harper will not be released early, Angela Rayner has said – although we won’t find out how the exemption works until next month.
There was uproar earlier in the summer when it was revealed Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers would be set free in the early release scheme, which is intended to relieve pressure on the prison system.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham pledged to look into ways of keeping them locked up, but when he later unveiled plans to stop the early release of criminals including rapists and child sex offenders, the killers were still exempted.
The Ministry of Justice was said to be investigating ways of keeping Cole and Bowers in prison without having to so the same for all others convicted of manslaughter – limiting the impact of the scheme – or carving out an exemption so specific that they could take legal action.
This morning, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said a solution had been identified and it would be set out to Parliament when it returns from its summer break in September.
She told LBC: ‘The Prime Minister is really clear, the Justice Secretary will come to Parliament in September to lay out our plans on how we keep the most serious criminals in jail.’
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Presenter Nick Ferrari clarified: ‘And that would include killers of police officers?’
Rayner replied: ‘Yes.’
Earlier this morning, housing minister Sally Jameson had told broadcasters she was ‘sure the justice secretary will find a way to make sure that PC Harper’s killers are not released early’.
She added: ‘He’s looking for solutions, and a solution’s been identified.’
The PM announced an exemption for those convicted of rape, serious child sex offences and grooming offences last week.
He said he had ‘pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing’ at that point.
Yesterday, a No 10 spokesperson said the manslaughter of an emergency worker was ‘not a standalone offence’, making it impossible to ‘simply exclude one or two offenders’.
PC Harper was fatally injured in 2019 when he was caught in the strap attached to the back of a car after being called out to a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire.
The police officer, who got married to his wife Lissie just a month earlier, was dragged to his death along a country road in a car driven by Henry Long with Cole and Bowers as passengers.
Long, Cole and Bowers were convicted of manslaughter, but Long is not up for early release.
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