The widow of PC Andrew Harper has revealed she is determined to embrace life because that is what her “best friend” would have wanted.
Despite her devastation at the officer’s brutal killing just four weeks after the couple’s wedding, Lissie, 30, added she still hopes to find happiness.
Describing the tragedy as “a blur of heart-wrenching pain”, she said: “We had gone from the happiest day of our lives to the worst in such a short space of time.
“I don’t think I will ever fully come to terms with Andrew’s death, such an unexpected and shocking change to my life and the future we planned.
“But I plan to be grateful for every moment and live how Andrew would want me to – to be happy and listen to my heart.”
On Tuesday, ITV will screen documentary The Killing of PC Harper: A Widow’s Fight for Justice where Sir Trevor McDonald meets Lissie in her home in Wallingford, Oxon, to discuss the death.
The officer, 28, was dragged along a road for more than a mile as he tried to stop a gang’s getaway car in August 2019.
Sir Trevor charts the probe that put the killers behind bars and talks to Lissie about her campaign for Harper’s Law.
The initiative was launched after three teenagers accused of Andrew’s murder were instead found guilty of manslaughter.
It aims to ensure anyone convicted of killing an emergency services worker while committing a crime is jailed for life.
The measure has been included in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to become law in the next few months.
Lissie said: “I want to create something Andrew would be proud of.
“Otherwise, it’s just a disgraceful waste of an amazing person’s life.
“There are no deterrents in our country for taking the lives of people who work tirelessly to protect the public. This needed to change.”
Andrew was killed when he tackled Henry Long, 19, Albert Bowers, 18, and Jesse Cole, 18, as they towed a stolen quad bike along a Berkshire lane.
The Thames Valley Police officer got entangled in a rope as they drove off but the gang said they did not know he was there.
Colleagues initially mistook his body for a “bloodied deer carcass”. Andrew died at the scene.
Long was jailed for 16 years while the others were caged for 13 years.
Lissie recalled the cheering of the defendants’ families at the verdict as “a kick in the gut”.
Admitting her grief is exhausting, she said of her campaign: “I will push, push until we get there, because I am doing it for Andrew, but I am also doing it for other emergency workers’ families, so in the future they won’t have to see this same kind of injustice.”
The Killing of PC Harper: A Widow’s Fight for Justice will air on ITV, Tuesday night at 9pm
The Killing of PC Harper: A Widow’s Fight for Justice will air on ITV, Tuesday night at 9pm
