The Old Bailey trial of three teenagers accused of the murder of PC Andrew Harper has been abandoned due to coronavirus.
Three jurors have now gone into self-isolation, forcing Mr Justice Edis to discharged the remaining panel and stop the case as there are not enough jurors to continue.
He told them last week after two jurors dropped out that the case was proceeding under “unusual circumstances”, and no one should feel under pressure to continue.
“We need to spend as long as it takes to do the trial fairly, we can’t rush it because we want to get to the end”, he said.
Pc Harper, a 28-year-old Thames Valley officer, became entangled in a tow rope as he tried to apprehend quad bike thieves in August last year, jurors were told.
The stricken officer was probably knocked unconscious as he fell, then dragged more than a mile along country lanes behind a Seat Toledo car driven by Henry Long, the court was told.
Colleagues desperately tried to save him but he suffered catastrophic injuries and died at the scene near Sulhamstead, in Berkshire.
Long, 18, from Mortimer, Reading, and two 17-year-olds, who cannot be named for legal reasons, all deny murdering Pc Harper.
They all admitted conspiring to steal a quad bike, and Long has admitted manslaughter, which the younger boys deny.
Pc Harper’s widow Lissie and other family members attended the trial which opened on March 10.
Over two weeks, the jury viewed harrowing dash-cam footage and heard a string of eyewitness accounts, with one describing how he at first mistook Pc Harper’s body for a deer.
Last week, the jury dropped from 12 men and women to 10 due to jurors going into self-isolation.
On Monday, Mr Justice Edis made a statement in court that the remaining jurors were discharged and the trial adjourned.
He said he had made the decision with a “heavy heart” after a third juror went into isolation over the weekend.
He said: “It is with great regret that I have decided to discharge the jury and to adjourn this trial.
“I have taken this decision with a heavy heart because I am acutely conscious of the need of those who loved Police Constable Harper, who would have been 29 yesterday, for this process to come to a conclusion.”
The judge set a review hearing on June 1 to set a date for the trial to start again.
The defendants remain custody until the fresh trial on a date to be fixed.
Old Bailey staff are listing cases that have been stopped for administrative hearings in May and June, with a view to relisting trials once the crisis is over.
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