Three teenagers have been convicted of killing a police officer during a desperate attempt to evade capture.

PC Andrew Harper was dragged for a mile behind their car, after he tried to stop the group towing away a quad bike, stolen from outside a house in west Berkshire.

The 28-year-old suffered horrific injuries and died at the scene near the A4.

The driver, Henry Long, 19 and his passengers Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, both 18, had denied murder. Long earlier admitted manslaughter and his co-accused were found guilty of the same offence by a jury at the Old Bailey in central London.

The trial was told that the 28-year-old Thames Valley police officer died in “truly shocking circumstances” after his ankles were caught in a rope hanging from the back of the car.

As the car sped away, PC Harper was knocked off his feet and “swung from side to side” at the end of the rope, which had been used to tow the stolen quad bike.

The court heard how the young officer and his colleague PC Andrew Shaw had been approaching the end of their evening shift with the roads policing unit on 15 August 2019, when a call came over their radio just after 11.15pm.

The teenage defendants had stolen the quad bike from outside a house in the village of Bradfield Southend and were towing it behind their Seat Toledo when they came face-to-face with PC Harper’s patrol car on a country road, around a mile from the A4.

Video from the police car’s dashboard camera was played in court, showing Cole running from the back of the car, where he had been sitting on the quad bike.

At the same time, as the police car edged towards them, Long drove his car on to the verge and past the police vehicle.

A rear-facing camera inside the police car showed a brief view of PC Harper, through the back windscreen, running towards the Seat as it sped off.

The court heard how the force of impact on the officer’s body, as he was dragged along the road, was so severe it ripped off his uniform and personal belongings.

In video evidence shown to the trial, his colleague PC Shaw, who was driving the patrol car, was seen desperately trying to catch up with the suspects’ car.

He picked up the police radio and told the control room: “My colleague PC Harper got out of the vehicle, ran after the vehicle. I’ve now lost him.”

As he drove down the country road, he stopped to pick up PC Harper’s stab vest.

When PC Shaw got back inside the patrol car, a message from another colleague further along the road signalled a shocking discovery.

In the transmission, the officer can be heard shouting: “There’s a body in the road, body in the road. Can we go to the body?”

PC Shaw radioed back saying: “That’s probably PC Harper. I’ve just found his stab vest in the road.”

Andrew Harper suffered multiple injuries. He was declared dead by paramedics at the scene.

Within 10 minutes of the officer’s death, a police helicopter spotted the defendants’ car parked up at a council-run travellers’ site at nearby Burghfield Common, its engine still hot and clearly visible on the helicopter’s thermal image camera.

The three teenagers, who all have links to the travelling community, were among 10 suspects arrested in the days after the tragedy.

Senior crown prosecutor Rebecca Waller said: “It has been a very difficult case for us because when the Crown Prosecution Service and Thames Valley Police joined forces, we had 10 in custody and obviously they had all been arrested from the caravan site, with no one saying anything.

“There was no forensic evidence, or in fact direct evidence to link anyone with the vehicle, so it was analysis of phones particularly that linked Henry Long and Albert Bowers to the evening offence.

“Their phones had been put out of the hands of the police and have never been recovered.”

Lawyers for the three defendants told the court their clients had no idea that PC Harper had been caught in the tow rope at the back of their car.

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