UK
Harry Dunn: Coroner criticises US government over lack of driver training for Americans at base near where teenager died
The coroner in the inquest into the death of Harry Dunn has recommended better driver training for Americans at the RAF base near where the 19-year-old was killed.
Mr Dunn was hit by a Volvo driven by Anne Sacoolas in August 2019, after she drove on the wrong side of the B4031 in Northamptonshire while he was riding a motorbike.
He died at hospital the same day.
The coroner concluded Mr Dunn died as a result of a road traffic collision and issued three prevention of future death notices in a bid to stop similar tragedies occurring.
Analysis: Harry’s family still have questions over crash – but killer has remained in the shadows
Two prevention of death notices were sent to the UK’s Department of Health over the drugs paramedics carry and overworked ambulance services.
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Sky News confronts Anne Sacoolas in 2022
A third notice was issued to the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence around driver training at RAF Croughton.
Sacoolas, a US government employee, had been based at the RAF station – which is also used by US forces – at the time the crash happened.
Northamptonshire coroner Anne Pember criticised the US government for a lack of training provided to Sacoolas before the crash.
Harry Dunn (L) and his brother Niall, with their stepfather Bruce Charles. Pic: PA
Harry Dunn’s family responds
Neither Sacoolas nor representatives from the US embassy attended the inquest – prompting the Dunn family spokesperson Radd Seiger to say the US government’s position was that “lives of UK citizens like Harry ultimately do not matter”.
Speaking after the inquest, he said: “It was not enough for them to kill Harry. It wasn’t enough for them to then kick Harry’s family in their darkest hour and seek to deny and delay the justice that they were entitled to.
“As we have all seen this week their attitude and approach to keeping their British hosts safe has been laid bare and they have positively obstructed the coroner’s inquiry and deprived the family of the answers they were entitled to as to why no one has ever addressed the issue of safety of UK citizens.”
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Harry Dunn’s family with spokesman Radd Seiger (centre)
Harry Dunn’s dad, Tim, became emotional outside the inquest
Mr Seiger also said Labour, if they get into power, has promised the family a public inquiry into how Sacoolas was able to leave the country with diplomatic immunity after causing Harry’s death.
“We won’t let [the US government] get away with it and we look forward to working with the next government to establish this public inquiry,” he said.
“We were all horrified as a nation to see how the US government treated Harry’s family. This must never happen again.
“The American national anthem ends ‘land of the free, home of the brave’. They haven’t demonstrated an ounce of bravery at all preferring to run, hide and obstruct.”
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Dunn family ‘totally disgusted’
Harry’s mother, Charlotte Charles, said she was “totally disgusted” that Sacoolas and US embassy representatives did not attend the inquest.
“I’ve think they’ve further disrespected Harry and the future he could have had,” she said, adding she feels they have shown “no regard” for her late son or family.
“We had to fight for three and a half years to even get to the Old Bailey, to get our form of justice done,” she said. “And then to have to wait another 18 months after that for our inquest, is pretty much unheard of.
“We’re tired, we’re exhausted and unfortunately, we are still angry with the US government for making us wait this long.”
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Anne Sacoolas’s witness statements
Evidence and two witness statements from Sacoolas were read out during the inquest after the US government employee rejected the coroner’s invitation to attend in person.
In one of the statements Sacoolas apologised for the “tragic mistake” she made on the day of the crash and said it was something that would live with her “every single day for the rest of my life”.
Harry Dunn’s family still have questions over fatal crash
It was October 2019. I had been made aware of a terrible crash which had killed a young motorcyclist called Harry Dunn a few months earlier.
The tip-off was Harry’s family were sure the person responsible worked for the US secret services, and she had left the country.
I was even given a name: Anne Sacoolas.
It was an unusual name. That night I did a search, and to my surprise she appeared on Facebook.
What spy would be on social media, I thought?
She said that when she turned out of RAF Croughton, taking a left turn, she instinctively moved to the right side of the road as she was “accustomed to driving in the US”.
She also told Northamptonshire Police in a voluntary interview two months after the crash that she was a “safe driver” but “drove like an American and drove on the American side of the road”.
Harry was killed near the RAF Croughton base
The 45-year-old said she had not received any training on driving on UK roads after arriving in the country and after the crash “hysterically flagged down a motorist” and “begged her to get help”.
“There is not a single day that goes by that Harry is not on my mind, and I am deeply sorry for the pain that I have caused,” Sacoolas said in the statement.
Reacting to the statements, Mr Seiger said: “We have heard most of that before.
“Why on earth is Sacoolas not in court to answer the court’s and the family’s questions?”
Sacoolas left Britain 19 days after the crash after the US Department of State asserted diplomatic immunity on her behalf.
In December 2022, after a protracted battle for justice by the family, she appeared before a High Court judge at the Old Bailey via video link from the US, when she pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving.
Sacoolas was advised against attending her sentencing hearing by the state department, which prompted the Dunn family to say they were “horrified” the American government was “actively interfering in our criminal justice system”.
She was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for a year.
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Harry Dunn’s twin’s tribute
The inquest also heard from Mr Dunn’s twin brother Niall who referred to him as “an amazing person” who helped him when he found life hard-going.
In a video played to the inquest, he said: “I couldn’t have asked for a better brother, but beyond that, just a better person to just be forced to know”.