Anyone who kills an emergency services worker while committing a crime will be given a mandatory life sentence, the Government has announced.

The move follows a tireless campaign from PC Andrew Harper’s widow whose husband, 28, was killed responding to a late-night burglary call just four weeks after their wedding day.

Lissie Harper, 30, was left ‘outraged’ by the sentences received by the three teenagers responsible for her ‘selfless’ husband’s death.

Mrs Harper said on Wednesday it had ‘been a long journey but she knew Andrew would be proud’.

She said: ‘Emergency services workers require extra protection. I know all too well how they are put at risk and into the depths of danger on a regular basis on behalf of society.

‘That protection is what Harper’s Law will provide and I am delighted that it will soon become a reality.’

PC Harper died after being caught in a strap attached to the back of a car and dragged down a country road as the trio fled the scene of a quad bike theft on August 15 2019.

Henry Long, 19, was sentenced to 16 years and Jessie Cole, 18, and Albert Bowers, 18, were handed 13 years in custody for manslaughter. All three were cleared of murder.

‘Harper’s Law’ is likely to go through early next year and will be an amendment to the existing Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.

Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, paid tribute to Mrs Harper’s ‘remarkable’ campaign while announcing the news.

He said: ‘This Government is on the side of victims and their families and we want our emergency services to know that we’ll always have their back.’

Home Secretary Priti Patel, described PC Harper’s killing as ‘shocking’ and said the Government wanted to ‘honour his life’.

She added: ‘Those who seek to harm our emergency service workers represent the very worst of humanity and it is right that future killers be stripped of the freedom to walk our streets with a life sentence.’

Police officers, National Crime Agency officers, prison officers, custody officers, firefighters and paramedics are all defined as emergency services workers.

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