The mother of PC Andrew Harper has said she spoke to the Justice Secretary on Friday who confirmed her son’s killers would not be released early from prison.
Speaking to GB News, Debbie Adlam said: “We finally got to the result that we were looking for, the result that should have always been there, but it’s a strange feeling, really, because it’s like we know that we’ve got back to where we were previously.
“We haven’t gained anything, and there’s nothing to celebrate exactly. But we are really happy that that conclusion was made at the end of the day, so there’s no early release, which was just a horrific thought.
“We’ll still have to face one day when they are freed; that’s not that far away either. So, yeah, a bit of a mixed bag of emotions, really. But ultimately we got the result we needed.
“We haven’t actually spoken to [Andy Burnham] I’d spoken to Alex Norris on Friday. He gave me a call, and that was a very welcome phone call, to be honest, just to hear it from the horse’s mouth.
“Because we were hearing things through the papers. You know, there were pieces being put out in the media which we hadn’t heard directly, so we didn’t know how much faith to have in it. Whether there’d been a leak or whether there’d been, you know, information given, I don’t know. But he said it didn’t come from them.
“So from the experience we’ve had so far, I wasn’t going to put any trust in it until I’d heard it from at least Downing Street somewhere.
“It’s very, very draining emotionally, trying to work out what’s going on, what’s been worth listening to, and then there’s always the element of you know, how do other people know it when I don’t know it?
“The media have been very interested in all of this because it’s such a huge issue. It’s a much, much bigger issue than just our own case. So my phone has just not stopped, and you know that alone is draining because it takes over your life really.
“We know there’s a good chance that we’ll now get to know, get to meet their families [of the police officers who died in Middlesbrough] as they start down their road, trying to accept and adjust and work out how you tread this path.
“They’ll see as we do, there’s still people out there that don’t believe that there’s any reason why a police officer should have any extra protection or any of these things.
“We see the comments that are really quite unpleasant, and that’s all part of it and you kind of get used to it in the end, I suppose. But you should never have to get used to it after everything we’ve been through.
“But that is the reality, you know. Everything that we see, even through all of the support we’ve had, there’s been an element of this as well. You know, there are the police haters, and that all adds really to your mental state.
“You try and ignore it, and you know this is pretty much you know reality. It’s social media these days. People, they’ve got free hand, and they say and put what they like.
“But on the whole, we’ve had so much positive support. It’s been incredible, and that’s the thing that we have to focus on. There are some really good, decent people out there, and they’ve stood up and they’ve raised their voices, and they’ve been beside us all the way.”