A JURY heard testimony from the officer who was with Andrew Harper moments before his death.

Three teenagers are on trial accused of murdering the 28 year-old on August 15 last year.

Taking to the witness box at the Old Bailey yesterday, PC Harper’s crew mate, Andrew Shaw, told jurors that PC Harper would not have been familiar with the ‘old’ saying ‘don’t get out of the car’.

On the night in question, PCs Shaw and PC Harper had been ‘stood down’ from duty in Reading at 10pm, three hours after their shift had officially ended.

The court heard that they were on their way back to base in Abingdon when the PC Harper heard a call coming through the channels.

PC Shaw, who was driving the unmarked BMW, recounted that PC Harper said: “There’s a burglary in process, are we going?”

They left the M4 motorway, PC Shaw told jurors, and headed for the country lanes, stopping head-to-head with a Seat Toledo – the hatchback at the centre of PC Harper’s murder trial.

The driver of that car, Henry Long, 18, and two 17-year-old boys, are all accused of PC Harper’s murder.

Reading Chronicle:

Here's a reminder of what the court have heard so far:

Roads policing officer, PC Shaw, who has been in the unit since 2009, told the jurors how PC Harper had exited the car in a bid to chase after and arrest one of the people inside Seat.

But instead, his ankles became ‘lassoed’ by a loading strap attached to the Seat, which had been used to tow a £10,000 stolen quad bike.

The court has heard that PC Harper was dragged for more than a mile of speeds of around 40mph.

PC Shaw told the court: “Back in the day we used to have a saying, ‘don’t get out of the car.’

“Because if you get out of the car you risk being run over and you also reduce the car’s effectiveness by 50 per cent if it turned into a pursuit.”

But of this saying, PC Shaw added: “It probably isn’t something PC Harper was familiar with.”

He described to the court the last moment he saw his crew mate alive and compared his fall to his experience of water-skiing, saying: “You have no control of where your body goes. You don’t even have enough time to put your hands out.”

He also described the frantic chase to find PC Harper and how he had lit up the roads with his blue lights as he drove backwards, because he was ‘worried that he had reversed over him’.

At this point the call handlers who had told the pair about the burglary were waiting for an update, asking PC Shaw to confirm their location.

But, in audio played to the court, the next thing that could be heard was the moments that PC Shaw came across PC Harper’s stab vest laying in the road.

Moments later the audio clip picks up PC Bushnell, another officer who had heard about the burglary, telling the operators that he had seen a body in the road.

This was the body of 28-year-old PC Harper, who could not be saved.

Long and the two teens, who can not be named, all deny murder.

The trial continues.