Mother of Harry Dunn slams wife of US diplomat who killed her son in a crash a ‘huge coward’]

The mother of teenager Harry Dunn has branded the wife of a US diplomat a ‘huge coward’ after she failed to appear at a sentencing for killing him in a crash.

US citizen Anne Sacoolas, 45, was yesterday sentenced at the Old Bailey to eight months in prison suspended for 12 months for causing the death of Mr Dunn on August 27, 2019.

Following the crash outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire, Harry was flung from his motorcycle as Sacoolas’ Volvo XC90 burst into flames. He later died in hospital.

But Sacoolas failed to appear at the Old Bailey to be sentenced yesterday, instead taking the advice of a government employer not to attend court. The decision has left Harry’s family ‘absolutely fuming’ as it made the sentence effectively unenforceable.

Sacoolas refused to answer any questions following the sentencing when approached by a reporter

19-year-old Harry Dunn died in August 2019, when he was struck by a car driven by US diplomat’s wife Anne Sacoolas outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire

Harry Dunn’s stepfather Bruce Charles and mother Charlotte Charles speak to media after the sentencing of Anne Sacoolas

The family of Harry Dunn (left to right) mother Charlotte Charles, stepfather Bruce Charles, stepmother Tracey Dunn, father Tim Dunn and family advisor Radd Seiger, pictured arriving at the Old Bailey this afternoon for the sentencing of Anne Sacoolas

Harry Dunn’s parents Charlotte Charles (left) and Tim Dunn (right) have pleaded for Sacoolas to acknowledge responsibility for their son’s death

Speaking to reporters outside the Old Bailey, Harry’s mother Charlotte Charles blasted her son’s killer.

She said: ‘She should have been there. I think it’s despicable that she didn’t come over on the judge’s orders. Huge coward.’

Meanwhile, Sacoolas refused to answer any questions following the sentencing.

Approached by a Sky News reporter, she was asked: ‘What words do you have for Harry Dunn’s family?’

She replied: ‘Have a nice day.’ 

Earlier, speaking after the sentencing, Ms Charles also said: ‘Job done, promise complete. Properly, properly complete now. Anne Sacoolas now has a criminal record. Yep, Harry, we’ve done it.

‘We would have been happy with anything – for us, it was just about doing the right thing.’

And asked if she would meet Sacoolas, Ms Charles said: ‘Too much too late now.’

She also accused British authorities of having ‘let us down’ badly following the death of her son.

She told Sky News that the US are ‘not my favourite and they are never going to be’, adding that ‘the UK really let us down badly in the beginning’.

Ms Charles continued: ‘They are starting to come good, I think. But I think I need to reserve judgement for now.’

Family spokesman Radd Seiger also said: ‘Our real enemy here isn’t Anne Sacoolas, our real enemy here is the US government, who after Harry’s death decided instead of doing the right thing for the family, decided to kick them in the stomach.’

He described the case as ‘one of the most extraordinary legal cases in English history’, adding that he was in awe of Harry’s parents for their persistent campaigning. 

Mr Seiger went on: Today is the end of the criminal phase and again the suggestion at the time was that this family was never going to get justice and that was never going to happen.

‘So, today is victory day. We can close this off now, and she has a very serious sentence.

‘Today is about thinking about Harry, and today is about thinking about the parents. They are heroes in my view. But we now move forward to the next phase of our campaign.

‘The parents want to leave a legacy for Harry, which is that this will never happen again.’

It came after the court heard that Harry begged a bystander ‘don’t let me die’ after he was knocked off his motorbike by the American diplomat driving on the wrong side of the road.

Sacoolas had earlier admitted causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving, but she was advised by her government employer not to attend her sentencing hearing today.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb revealed she received a ‘barrier’ from the US Government refusing to allow Mrs Sacoolas’ attendance to face justice.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he hoped the judgment ‘provides some closure’ to Harry Dunn’s family and said ‘important lessons’ had been learned from the case.

Today, Sacoolas appeared to wipe a tear as she listened to a harrowing statement from Dunn’s mother at her sentencing hearing in Court One of the Old Bailey before Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb.   

The mother told the court she was left ‘absolutely fuming’ on learning the US government had advised her not to travel to the UK to face justice, making the sentence effectively unenforceable.

Speaking in a packed Court One, Mrs Charles wept as she said: ‘Harry just disappeared out of my life that night, shattering my existence forever.

‘His passing haunts me every minute of every day and I’m not sure how I’m ever going to get over it.’

‘I made a promise to Harry in the hospital that we would get him justice and a mother never breaks a promise to her son.’

Passing sentence, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: ‘A request for your extradition was submitted in 2020, it was denied.

‘There is no doubt that the calm and dignified persistence of these parents and family of that young man has led through three years of heartbreak and effort to your appearance before this court and acknowledge your guilt.’

Opening the facts, Duncan Atkinson KC told how Mr Dunn was fatally injured at about 8.20pm on August 27 2019 when his Kawaski motorbike crashed with Sacoolas’s Volvo.

At the time of the collision, Sacoolas was driving two of her children home from a barbeque at Croughton US Air Base.

Mr Dunn had spent the afternoon with his best friend, Robert Hill, and was on his way home on his motorbike.

Mr Atkinson said: ‘He was described as being his normal self, happy and joking.’

There was an ‘explosion and fire’ following the collision, in which Mrs Sacoolas was on the wrong side of the road.

‘Harry Dunn was thrown on the front of the Volvo, then over the vehicle … striking the rear window before coming to rest behind it.

‘(The Volvo’s) rear window had been smashed and its airbags had been activated. The motorbike itself had extensive fire damage.’

The collision happened on the B4031, a two-carriageway road, between Croughton village and Croughton US Air Base in Northamptonshire, with a 40mph speed limit.

Mr Atkinson told how another motorist, Jennifer Hewitt, came upon the Volvo, on the wrong side of the road, with an object on fire in front of it which she realised was a motorbike.

He said: ‘She saw the defendant standing at the side of the road with her two children.

‘The defendant was disoriented, very distressed, and shocked, and said ‘I’ve had a head-on collision with a motorbike. It’s all my fault, I was on the wrong side of the road’.

‘She added ‘I’ve only been here a couple of weeks’.’

Ms Hewitt then saw Mr Dunn lying on the verge at the side of the road, near the Volvo. According to her, he was face down, but conscious. He repeatedly said ‘don’t let me die’.’

Ms Hewitt called the emergency services and tried to reassure Mr Dunn, the court heard.

Police arrived at the scene at 8.28pm and found smoke coming from Mr Dunn’s bike and the teenager face-down on the verge. He had suffered leg injuries and told officers ‘the car was on the wrong side of the road’.

The prosecutor said Anne Sacoolas told police at the scene she had ‘made a mistake’ and that she was ‘so stupid’. 

‘The police observed that the defendant had her head in her hands and was crying. She told them she had ‘made a mistake’ and said ‘I was so stupid’.

‘The police confirmed that she complied fully with their requests at the scene. She acknowledged she was driving on the wrong side of the road.’

Harry Dunn’s mother broke down in court as she spoke of how her son was ‘so senselessly and cruelly taken from us’.

She told the Old Bailey: ‘I am Harry’s mother. My world turned upside down on 27 August 2019.

‘My beautiful son Harry, twin brother of Niall, is gone and is never coming back.

US citizen Sacoolas (pictured in Virginia) struck the teenage motorcyclist in a road crash outside US military base RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on August 27, 2019 

At a hearing in October, US citizen Anne Sacoolas pleaded guilty, via video-link from the United States, to causing Harry Dunn´s death by careless driving

(Left to right) Harry Dunn’s father Tim Dunn, stepmother Tracey, mother Charlotte Charles and stepfather Bruce stand outside the Old Bailey at a previous case management hearing

Sacoolas, who appeared via video-link at a previous hearing in the case on September 29, joined the proceedings remotely

Charlotte Charles speaking to the media after Sacoolas´s plea hearing (James Manning/PA)

A court sketch of Sacoolas (on the screen, right) during her appearance at the Old Bailey. Tim Dunn (right) held his head in his hands as Sacoolas pleaded guilty 

‘For 19 years, I had the enormous privilege and joy of nurturing and raising Harry, who was the light of my life before he was so senselessly and cruelly taken from us.’

Anne Sacoolas appeared to wipe away a tear as Mrs Charles read her victim impact statement.

Mrs Charles said: ‘I didn’t make it to the hospital in time before he passed and the thought of that haunts me to my core.

‘My job is to comfort my children and I wasn’t there for Harry to comfort him in what must have been an awful and painful, slow death, particularly as he lay on the side of the road waiting for an ambulance bleeding to death.

‘I beat myself up over and over again and wish I had left work earlier so that I could have gotten to him in time.

‘If I had left work on time that night, I would have been able to delay him leaving the house, so that he wouldn’t have been travelling along the same road as Anne Sacoolas.’

The court heard Sacoolas had called her husband to the scene and was seen to be crying with her head in her hands.

She told officers she had ‘made a mistake’ and said ‘I was so stupid’, Mr Atkinson said.

A breath test was negative for alcohol and Sacoolas acknowledged she was driving on the wrong side of the road, he said.

Mr Dunn was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where he died from his injuries at 10.50pm.

In mitigation, Anne Sacoolas’s defence barrister Ben Cooper KC said the US citizen had received death threats via email and telephone, and her family had been forced to relocate following Harry Dunn’s death.

Reading a statement on behalf of the defendant, Mr Cooper said her actions caused her ‘regret every single day’, adding: ‘There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about Harry.’

Mr Cooper said Sacoolas ‘did not ask’ for the diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US government, nor did she have an opportunity to have a say in the refusal of an extradition request submitted by the Home Office.

He said the defendant left the country on a commercial flight as her family were redeployed on the decision of her government.

Sentencing Anne Sacoolas, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the defendant: ‘The impact with the front of your car threw him onto the front of your car, and over it and onto the road.

‘You got out, realised what had happened and you were very distressed.

‘You confirmed to the police that what happened was your fault and you had been on the wrong side of the road.

‘You were not arrested at the time, you did not remain in the United Kingdom … and you submitted to a voluntary interview with police in Washington DC.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the defendant: ‘At no point during these proceedings was it suggested that you were not free to travel.

‘There could be little reason where a young man had met his death for you not to be required to attend for sentence.’

Speaking about the renewed application for the defendant to appear via video-link, the judge said: ‘A week before that date, the court received a renewal of an application for you to appear via live link which made reference to harassment you and your family had received.

‘A request was made on your behalf for a delay of a week to obtain further evidence – this was allowed.’

The judge said she then received ‘for the first time in these criminal proceedings’ what she described as a ‘barrier’ to her attendance in court from the US government.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said she received a statement from the US administration, saying: ‘The US government does not in any way support Mrs Sacoolas’ appearance at this hearing.

‘Her return could place significant US interests at risk.’

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said: ‘Anne Sacoolas has finally been sentenced in a British court.

‘Since Harry’s death in August 2019, we have been clear that Ms Sacoolas should return to the UK to face British justice.

‘Since she chose not to, virtual hearings were arranged as the most viable way to bring the case to court and give justice to Harry’s family.

‘I want to pay tribute to the incredible resolve of Harry’s family and I hope that the judgment provides some closure.

‘We have learnt important lessons from this tragic incident, including improvements to the process around exemptions from diplomatic immunity and ensuring the US takes steps to improve road safety around RAF Croughton.’

Following the sentencing, Northamptonshire Police praised Harry’s family for ‘shining a light’ on the case in their quest for justice.

The force said in a statement: “Throughout this long process, we have been determined to deliver a judicial outcome for Harry’s family.

‘They have spent more than three years shining a light on this case in their quest for justice for him. While their tragic loss will always be felt, we hope they now feel justice has been delivered and they can begin to move forward with their lives.

‘This was an extremely complex and challenging case, but Northamptonshire Police carried out a full and thorough investigation following the tragic events of August 27, 2019.

‘Through the determined efforts of colleagues in our serious collision investigation unit, we were eventually able to bring a case file to our partners in the Crown Prosecution Service and, thanks to their diligence over a prolonged period of time, this ultimately led to the charging and later admission of guilt by Anne Sacoolas.’

A former Foreign Office minister who signed off an agreement which allowed the US government to assert diplomatic immunity on behalf of Anne Sacoolas has said it was ‘never intended’ to be used in that way.

Sir Tony Baldry, who was a junior minister when the documents were drawn up in the 1990s, told the PA news agency he was ‘horrified’ when the US administration suggested there was a ‘loophole’ in the original agreement following Harry Dunn’s death.

‘I don’t think it was ever intended, I’m quite sure, when the Foreign Office legal team thought out the agreements, or agreed to the agreements, that you are covered by diplomatic immunity when you weren’t actually acting as a diplomat,’ he said.

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy also said: ‘Today’s judgment marks at least some justice after the Dunn family’s courageous and unwavering fight for Harry following his tragic death. Today we pay tribute to them.’

Max Hill KC, Director of Public Prosecutions, said: ‘We have today seen the end of the journey to secure justice for the family of Harry Dunn.

‘Many thought we’d never get to this point – but I hope it sends a clear message that we are steadfast in our commitment to bring people to justice.

‘Despite the challenges that arose as the case progressed, our expert prosecutors were able to secure a guilty plea and Sacoolas has now been sentenced for causing the death of Harry Dunn.

‘Harry Dunn’s family has shown immense strength and bravery throughout the long road to get to this point in the proceedings. Having met them, I know that their determination to secure justice has never wavered. Neither has ours.’

The Labour MP added: ‘The UK Government must be honest and transparent about its mistakes under Dominic Raab’s leadership and learn meaningful lessons from them. Sacoolas should not have been allowed to leave the country and the US should have waived her immunity.

‘The ordeal the family have had to endure – made worse by a series of failures in Foreign Office – must never be repeated. No other family can ever be allowed to go through the same.’