PC Andrew Harper's killers 'weren't valued by society' as they were illiterate, says Royal Navy admiral

The newlywed officer suffered horrific injuries after being dragged along a Berkshire road by a car while he attempted to stop a trio of teenage thieves.

Henry Long, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole have since been convicted of manslaughter but were cleared of murder following a trial at the Old Bailey.

Now Admiral Lord Alan West has claimed the nation needs to do more to ensure more people know how to read and write, in a bid to avoid future killings.

Speaking during a debate in the House of Lords, the Labour peer and former First Sea Lord said: ‘It is difficult to overestimate how important it is for an individual in this country to read and speak English.

‘The dreadful manslaughter of Police Constable Andrew Harper throws a light on this issue in a slightly different way.

‘The young men convicted, Henry Long, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, could not read or write.

‘Their education from the age of 11 was only in the arena of crime, not at school.

‘Does the minister agree that all British citizens should speak and read our language if they are to thrive and become valued members of society?

‘It is important to the fabric of our nation and their feeling of belonging to this nation. Not giving anyone the opportunity, and making that learning compulsory if necessary, is a failure of our system.’

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Tory peer Lord Stephen Greenhalgh agreed with the retired navy boss.

He told peers that a recent census showed that 770,000 people living in England ‘speak little or no English’.

‘We need to work hard to ensure that we provide them with those skills, so that they can benefit fully from life in this country,’ he said, adding: ‘Alack of English skills presents a clear barrier to social and economic mobility.

‘As a government, we will always focus on the practical solutions that can make a real difference to people’s lives.’

The news came as PC Harper's widow wrote to Boris Johnson demanding a retrial after her husband's teenage killers were cleared of murder.

In an open letter posted on her Facebook last night, Lissie Harper wrote to the prime minister, home secretary Priti Patel and Lord Blunkett urging them and others ‘to right such a despicable wrong for our country’.

She wrote: ‘I implore you to hear my words, see the facts that are laid out before us, and I ask with no expectations other than hope that you might help me to make these changes be considered, to ensure that Andrew is given the retrial that he unquestionably deserves and to see that the justice system in our country is the solid ethical foundation that it rightly should be. Not the joke that so many of us now view it to be.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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