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Tearful Lissie Harper, 29, said she had hoped for a different verdict and described the killing of her hero husband, 28, who was dragged by behind a car, as a “barbaric crime”.

When the not guilty verdicts were announced at the Old Bailey, Lissie quietly wept while relatives of the youths cheered and shouted: “Yes!”

Henry Long, 19, had been accused of deliberately swinging a Seat Toledo car from side to side “like a pendulum” after the newlywed officer got caught in a towing strap hanging from the car’s boot.

His accomplices Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both 18, were cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter.

Long had admitted manslaughter before the trial.

All three, who appeared via prison video link yesterday, will be sentenced on Friday.

Speaking to the media outside court, Lissie said: “I have a whole life sentence to bear and, believe me when I say it will be a much more soul-destroying and treacherous journey than anyone facing a meagre number of years in prison will experience.

“I honestly thought I would be addressing you after a very different verdict. I had planned to talk of the beautiful future Andrew and I had before us, I expected my words to be so very different, and in all honesty I am, for the second time in the space of one year, utterly shocked and appalled.”

Surrounded by her family, she said: “The decisions made in these courts by strangers will never change the outcome that had already come to pass.

“For many, many agonising months we have hoped that justice would come in some way for Andrew. We have put our faith in the justice system and all who work within it.”

She paid tribute to PC Harper’s Thames Valley Police colleagues and lawyers who “stood in our corner and fought to make sure these men were made to repent for their barbaric crimes”.

She said she and her family had waited with “baited breath and heavy hearts” for the jury’s decision. Lissie and her husband were childhood sweethearts, had been married for just four weeks and were looking forward to their honeymoon when he was killed.

She said: “No verdict or sentence will ever bring my incredible, selfless and heroic husband back. The results from this trial I had hoped would bring justice, but in reality make no difference to the heartwrenching pain I will continue to feel for the rest of my life.”

Prosecutors, including the CPS’s Rebecca Waller, argued that Long must have known the 6ft 4in tall police officer was being dragged along dark country lanes at an average speed of 42.5mph – and was therefore guilty of murder. But Long insisted he had no idea that the unconscious and fatally wounded PC Harper was entangled in the canvas strap for 1.4miles in a journey that took 91 seconds.

In a rare move, the jury – reduced to 11 after one was discharged on Monday – had to be given special protection.

These measures were put in place after police had intelligence that associates of the defendants were planning to intimidate jurors during the first trial, which started in March. It had to be aborted due to the pandemic.

PC Harper, known as Harps, suffered catastrophic injuries after his ankles got caught in a strap that had been towing a stolen quad bike.

The policeman and a fellow rapidresponse officer went to investigate the theft of the £10,000 vehicle from outside a house in Bradfield Southend, Berks, on August 15 last year, despite their shift having ended four hours earlier.

Because PC Harper and PC Andrew Shaw were well past the end of their working day, they could have ignored the call.

But as dedicated, professional police officers, they did not hesitate, and volunteered to attend the scene. It was a decision that cost PC Harper his life.

The thieves had used the strap to tie the stolen quad bike to the Seat Toledo, and Cole was riding the bike when they were confronted by PCs Harper and Shaw in their marked car. Cole jumped off the bike and unhitched the strap, leaving a loop dragging along the ground. As he leapt through an open window of the Seat, PC Harper stepped into the loop and was “lassoed” around his ankles.

Long put his foot down and the helpless officer was dragged to his horrific death.

Senior investigating officer, Detective Superintendent Stuart Blaik of the Thames Valley Police Major Crime Unit, said: “Today Long, Bowers and Cole have been convicted of the manslaughter of our colleague PC Andrew Harper.

“We respect the jury’s decision to find the three defendants not guilty of the murder of PC Harper. “We appreciate that the jurors must be sure that the prosecution has proved guilt beyond reasonable doubt.” Mr Blaik added: “No matter what the verdicts, there would have been no sense of victory.

“It was always going to be an immense challenge to bring this case to court, and in doing so was an achievement in itself.

“This has been a hugely complicated investigation in which we seized 2,753 exhibits, took 1,250 statements and visited more than 1,000 homes during house-tohouse enquiries.

“It was extremely challenging to determine our suspects, but once we had, we then had to establish who was driving and who the passengers were. It is thanks to this work that we were able to prove beyond a doubt that Long, Bowers and Cole were all in the Seat Toledo that night.

“The strength of the evidence against them meant that they had to admit their involvement in this offence before the trial even started.”

Long and Bowers, both of Mortimer, Reading, and Cole, of Bramley, Hants, denied murder.

All three admitted conspiracy to steal the quad bike. Long admitted manslaughter but insisted he did not intend to harm PC Harper.

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