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Harry Dunn: parents ask to see exchanges between police, FCO and US Harry Dunn death: White House asks for meeting with parents
(about 7 hours later)
Lawyers acting for the parents of Harry Dunn, the 19-year-old motorcyclist killed in a car accident outside an RAF base, have demanded to see all the exchanges between the US embassy, the UK Foreign Office and the British police that led to the decision for the American driver Anne Sacoolas to claim diplomatic immunity and leave the country. The White House has asked for a meeting with the parents of Harry Dunn, the 19-year-old motorcyclist killed in a collision with a car suspected to have been driven by the wife of a US intelligence officer.
The lawyers say they will mount a judicial review if the Foreign Office does not cooperate. The spokesman for the family, Radd Seiger, tweeted that the White House had asked Dunn’s parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, to come to a meeting and that they were on their way to Washington DC.
Sacoolas has admitted in a statement that she was “driving on the wrong side of the road and is terribly, terribly sorry for that tragic mistake”. The White House have just invited #HarryDunn’s parents and I to a meeting this afternoon. Looking forward to getting further answers as we search for #JusticeforHarry. @Justice4Harry
The Foreign Office wrote to the Dunn family at the weekend to say that the US and the UK agreed her diplomatic immunity no longer applied once she returned to the US. They had been in New York doing a round of interviews on morning TV shows calling on the woman involved, Anne Sacoolas, to return to the UK.
The Dunn family, currently in the US to pursue their demand that Sacoolas return to UK to face an investigation, said they were ready to launch a full investigation into the Foreign Office role. Sacoolas has admitted in a statement that she was driving on the wrong side of the road when her car hit Dunn on his motorcycle after she came out of an RAF base in Northamptonshire on 27 August. She has said it was an accident, and that she is sorry.
She initially cooperated with police before being flown out of the country. The US said at the time she would not be returned to the UK as she was covered by diplomatic immunity.
It was not immediately clear whether the Dunn family were going to meet the US president, Donald Trump, a known fan of morning TV shows, or whether the meeting would be with officials.
Earlier, lawyers acting for the parents of Dunn demanded to see all the exchanges between the US embassy, the UK Foreign Office and the British police that led to Sacoolas claiming diplomatic immunity and leaving the country.
The lawyers say they will mount a judicial review if the Foreign Office does not cooperate. The department wrote to the Dunn family at the weekend to say that the US and the UK agreed that Sacoolas’s diplomatic immunity no longer applied once she returned to the US.
How does diplomatic immunity work?How does diplomatic immunity work?
The family are being advised by two leading lawyers specialising in diplomatic immunity, Mark Stephens and Geoffrey Robinson.The family are being advised by two leading lawyers specialising in diplomatic immunity, Mark Stephens and Geoffrey Robinson.
Family spokesman Radd Seiger said: “What Mark [Stephens] and I are going to do, is we are going to write to the FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] very shortly, explaining that we don’t want to do a judicial review, but to avoid that, please let us have the following documents – all emails, messages and notes in relation to your advice to Northamptonshire police that this lady had it [diplomatic immunity]. Seiger said: “What Mark [Stephens] and I are going to do, is we are going to write to the FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] very shortly, explaining that we don’t want to do a judicial review, but to avoid that, please let us have the following documents – all emails, messages and notes in relation to your advice to Northamptonshire police that this lady had it [diplomatic immunity].
“What we don’t know is whether somebody cocked up or whether they were put under pressure by the Americans to concede. “What we don’t know is whether somebody cocked up or whether they were put under pressure by the Americans to concede. But we want to conduct an investigation into the FCO’s decision to advise Northamptonshire police that this lady had the benefit of diplomatic immunity. If we’re not satisfied, then we’ll go to a judicial review and ask a high court judge to review it all.”
“But we want to conduct an investigation into the FCO’s decision to advise Northamptonshire police that this lady had the benefit of diplomatic immunity. It remains unclear why the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, did not tell the Dunn family when he met them last week that he believed Sacoolas lost her immunity once she returned to the US. In what has been described as a cold meeting, the Dunn family were left with the impression that the Foreign Office could do no more.
“If we’re not satisfied, then we’ll go to a judicial review and ask a high court judge to review it all.”
It remains unclear why the foreign secretary did not tell the Dunn family when he met them last week that he believed Sacoolas lost her immunity once she returned to the US.
In what has been described as a cold meeting, the Dunn family were left with the impression that the Foreign Office could do no more.
Raab has said he needed to be sure of the legal position before he confided in the family.Raab has said he needed to be sure of the legal position before he confided in the family.
Stephens contends that Anne Sacoolas’s husband, Jonathan, may not have had diplomatic immunity, but the Foreign Office says all staff at RAF Croughton, where he worked, covered by immunity. Stephens contends that Sacoolas’s husband, Jonathan Sacoolas, may not have had diplomatic immunity, but the Foreign Office says all staff at RAF Croughton, where he worked, were covered by immunity.
Sacoolas has said she wants to meet the family to apologise and take ­responsibility, but has not said she will return to the UK. Sacoolas has said she wants to meet the family to apologise and take responsibility, but has not said she will return to the UK. Her lawyers said: “Anne stayed on the scene of the ­accident to assist. She spoke to Harry to tell him that she would call for help. She waved down another car. That driver offered to assist Harry so that Anne could comfort her young children in her car.”
Her lawyers say: “Anne stayed on the scene of the ­accident to assist. She spoke to Harry to tell him that she would call for help.
“She waved down another car. That driver offered to assist Harry so that Anne could comfort her young children in her car.”
Sacoolas claimed she left the scene only when an ­ambulance arrived.Sacoolas claimed she left the scene only when an ­ambulance arrived.
Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, said at a press conference in New York that the family had been told there was CCTV evidence showing Sacoolas leaving the RAF base “on the wrong side of the road”. Charles said at a press conference in New York that the family had been told there was CCTV evidence showing Sacoolas leaving the RAF base “on the wrong side of the road”.
She added: “CCTV follows her all the way down the road on the wrong side of the road and you see Harry’s headlight of his motorbike and then there is a big fireball when his bike went up.
Harry Dunn's parents give tearful account of finding dying son to US TVHarry Dunn's parents give tearful account of finding dying son to US TV
“So it should have been a clear-cut case. It should have been simple and I promised Harry and we promised Harry as a family when we’d lost him that night, when we were talking to him in the hospital when we’d lost him already, that we would make sure justice was done.” She added: “CCTV follows her all the way down the road on the wrong side of the road and you see Harry’s headlight of his motorbike and then there is a big fireball when his bike went up.
The former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt joined the call for Sacoolas to return to the UK. He said: “I think it was a mistake to spirit her out of the country – it was immensely disrespectful to Harry Dunn’s family and the relationship with the UK to do that. “So it should have been a clearcut case. It should have been simple and I promised Harry and we promised Harry as a family when we’d lost him that night, when we were talking to him in the hospital when we’d lost him already, that we would make sure justice was done.”
“I don’t think America should have done that and they need to find a way to bring her back. We are not some tinpot dictatorship here; we have the rule of law and it is absolutely right that Anne Sacoolas faces the legal consequences of what she did, however accidental it might be, now matter how sorry she is, she needs to recognise that.” The former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt joined the call for Sacoolas to return to the UK. He said: “I think it was a mistake to spirit her out of the country – it was immensely disrespectful to Harry Dunn’s family and the relationship with the UK to do that.”
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