Harry Dunn: Mum tells US diplomat’s wife Anne Sacoolas ‘sorry doesn’t cut it’

The mother of Harry Dunn has told Sky News “sorry doesn’t cut it” ahead of a potential meeting with the woman involved in the crash that killed him.

Parents Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn are travelling to the US after the Foreign Office said that Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American diplomat, no longer has diplomatic immunity because she has returned home.

Mrs Sacoolas has said she wants to meet to “express her deepest sympathies and apologies” after the fatal accident outside an RAF base in Northamptonshire in August, but Ms Charles said “that’s not really quite enough”.

Ahead of her departure from the UK, Ms Charles told Sky’s Lisa Dowd: “My opinion on Anne Sacoolas now wanting to come forward and say sorry – to be perfectly honest, yes it’s the start of some closure for our family.

“Having said that, as it’s nearly seven weeks now since we lost our boy, sorry just doesn’t cut it.

“That’s not really quite enough. But I’m still really open to meeting her, as are the rest of us. I can’t promise what I would or wouldn’t say, but I certainly wouldn’t be aggressive.”

Mr Dunn added: “So after thinking about the letter, obviously we were right from the start. So here we are, about to get on the plane at Heathrow to go to America.

“Still apprehensive because, you know, this thing has been up and down, up and down.

“Hopefully we’ll get the answers we are seeking.”

Harry, 19, died when his motorbike collided with a car outside RAF Croughton on 27 August.

Mrs Sacoolas, 43, was involved in the crash but returned to the US after being granted diplomatic immunity, prompting the grieving family to make a public appeal for her to return.

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Her lawyer Amy Jeffress has since said Mrs Sacoolas is “devastated by this tragic accident” and that she “extends her deepest sympathy” to the family.

In a statement released on Saturday, she added: “The media reporting has been inaccurate in many respects. To begin with, Anne fully co-operated with the police and the investigation.

“She spoke with authorities at the scene of the accident and met with the Northampton police at her home the following day. She will continue to co-operate with the investigation.

“Anne would like to meet with Mr Dunn’s parents so that she can express her deepest sympathies and apologies for this tragic accident. We have been in contact with the family’s attorneys and look forward to hearing from them.”

Ms Charles and Mr Dunn had expressed anger and disappointment at how the UK government had handled the case following a meeting with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

But on Saturday they received a letter from Mr Raab to say that Mrs Sacoolas no longer has diplomatic immunity.

However, Michael McParland QC, who is a US attorney, told Sky News the communication from the foreign secretary was nothing more than a “meaningless concession”.

He said: “I find this letter quite troubling, I think the family’s lawyer should be asking Dominic Raab to explain some very simple questions.

“Are the US saying that now they will not raise the question of diplomatic immunity if she returns voluntarily to the UK, or the British police seek extradition proceedings to bring her back to face any criminal charges?

“If the answer to those is still no, really it’s a frankly misleading piece of fobbing off by Dominic Raab to the family.”

The letter from Mr Raab said the loss of diplomatic immunity for Mrs Sacoolas meant the case could now be taken forward by Northamptonshire Police.

Detective Superintendent Sarah Johnson told Sky News the force was working with the Crown Prosecution Service and other agencies to progress its investigation – even though the suspect is not in the UK.

“The driver that we are seeking did engage with us after the original collision,” she said.

“After that original meeting on 28 August, we were advised that diplomatic immunity applied, which therefore prevented us from being able to otherwise progress the investigation.”

She added: “We are really determined to make sure we can progress this investigation to seek the outcome that’s correct and right for Harry and his family.”

Ms Johnson emphasised that police were yet to name Mrs Sacoolas as the suspect involved in the crash, and that the force was hoping for a “judicial outcome” to the case.

Mark Stephens, the lawyer representing the family, told Sky News that Mrs Sacoolas “was very ill-advised” to have left the UK and said that it had caused “untold additional grief and hurt”.

“The most important thing for Dunn family is not whether she’s prosecuted or not, they need to see her, talk to her about last moments of their son’s life so they can get closure,” he said.

“They have been denied that by her fleeing jurisdiction.

“Mrs Sacoolas had her 10-year-old son strapped into the front seat of her vehicle and that would have been a traumatic experience for her son, and I’m sure the Sacoolas family are dealing with matters that are tragic as well.

“There is a basis for having a human meeting, it has to be in private, just mum, dad and Mrs Sacoolas, and they can ask the questions and get the answers both sides think they need.”

As well as a possible meeting with Mrs Sacoolas, family spokesman Radd Seiger said Harry’s parents would spend their time in New York and Washington DC to put pressure on the US government to “do the right thing”.

Secret briefing notes accidentally shown by President Donald Trump this week revealed Mrs Sacoolas would not be returning to the UK to face trial.

The card instructed Mr Trump to respond to a direct question about whether Mrs Sacoolas would be returned to the UK by saying she would not.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that the US was “ruthless” in safeguarding Mrs Sacoolas and it was “very reluctant” to allow its citizens to go on trial abroad.

That concern was echoed by Home Secretary Priti Patel on Sunday, who played down suggestions Mrs Sacoolas could be extradited from the US.

She told The Andrew Marr Show: “The foreign secretary has been working with his American counterpart, he has been in touch with the US administration on this.

“It very much seems that the lady in question wants to start co-operating with the discussions and the investigations and I think that we should support that.

“We need to ensure that justice is done but obviously that co-operation with this investigation takes place. That is absolutely right.”

(c) Sky News 2019: Harry Dunn: Mum tells US diplomat’s wife Anne Sacoolas ‘sorry doesn’t cut it’