HARRY Dunn’s mum has broken down in tears as she joined forces with PC Andrew Harper’s mother in a fight for justice for their sons. The two men were killed just 12 days apart in August last year, and now their mums Charlotte Charles and Debbie Adlam have come together to support each other. Ms […]
HARRY Dunn’s mum has broken down in tears as she joined forces with PC Andrew Harper’s mother in a fight for justice for their sons.
The two men were killed just 12 days apart in August last year, and now their mums Charlotte Charles and Debbie Adlam have come together to support each other.
Ms Adlam, PC Harper’s mum, wrote a letter to Ms Charles after her son, 19, was killed in a crash outside a military base.
The pair have formed a friendship over their shared grief at losing their children.
PC Harper, 28, died after he was dragged by a getaway car while investigating a theft.
Ms Adlam wrote to Ms Charles: “The pain is too much I know. Some days just start to finish are awful.
“And some days I think I’m coping and then it’s like a bullet in my chest. And it burns, and the reality is just so bad.
“I’m sorry you too probably feel exactly that. Our precious boys.”
Ms Charles wrote back to Ms Adlam thanking her for “such a heartfelt message”.
“We’re both suffering the loss of a precious son that nothing can replace,” Ms Charles wrote.
Ms Charles broke down in tears as she spoke about losing her son and her friendship with Ms Adlam.
“I feel I am never going to be the person I was. You’re very careful with how much you let others see,” she told the BBC.
“But when you know that you’ve got somebody that is equally broken inside, it’s easier. It’s priceless.”
Ms Charles cried as she said she wished she could’ve been with her son during his final moments.
“And you’d do anything you could, as horrific as it may have been, to have just been there. And held their hand, and let them know that even though they would have still died, that you were there to comfort them.”
Ms Adlam said she thinks about her son every day.
“It’s already there. There’s no waking up in the morning thinking… and then… oh. There’s nothing that breaks it. It’s 24 hours a day, it’s in your mind. It’s just exhausting.”
Both women are campaigning for change – Ms Adlam for the introduction of “Andrew’s Law” that would see an automatic 20-year sentence for the killing of an officer in the line of duty, while Ms Charles wants her son’s alleged killer to go through the British legal system.
Ms Charles said she and Ms Adlam hoped their campaigns would enable them to “learn to live again”.
PC Harper was dragged to his death while responding to a quad bike theft on August 15 last year.
Ms Adlam has worked tirelessly since her son’s killers were jailed for just 42 years total after being convicted of manslaughter.
Albert Bowers, 18, Henry Long, 19, and Jessie Cole, 18, were cleared of murder much to the slain cop’s family’s dismay.
They were instead convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter – meaning the trio were handed a lesser prison sentence.
PC Harper’s devastated wife Lissie, who wed her childhood sweetheart, 28, four weeks before his death, has now joined his mum Debbie’s calls for tougher jail terms on cop killers.
Meanwhile Ms Charles has called on Britain to stand up to the “bully” United States and demand crash suspect Anne Sacoolas, 42.
She is charged with causing 19-year-old’s Harry’s death by dangerous driving outside a US military base in Northamptonshire last August.
Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence official, claimed diplomatic immunity and was able to return to America.
The US angrily rejected an extradition request.
Ms Charles said no one should be extradited from Britain to America “until the US government agrees to play by the rules”.
