Foreign Office didn’t deal with 19-year-old Harry Dunn case as disaster, damning evaluate finds
The teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn was killed after a August 2019 road collision caused by US national Anne Sacoolas, who was driving on the wrong side of the road
The Foreign Office failed to treat the Harry Dunn case as a crisis after the death of the 19-year-old, a damning review into the tragedy has concluded.
The teenage motorcyclist was killed after a 2019 road collision caused by US national Anne Sacoolas, who was driving on the wrong side of the road. She was leaving the US base at RAF Croughton, where her husband worked, and was allowed to leave the UK the 19 days later under diplomatic immunity.
Published today, the review by Dame Anne Owers said the then-Tory government lost “opportunities to influence” rather than respond to events. It also criticised communication from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) for being “late, sporadic and often overtaken by events”.
It said under a UK-US agreement immunity for “administrative and technical staff” at Croughton was waived so they could be prosecuted. But it added: “In an unnoticed loophole, this waiver had not been explicitly extended to their dependents. The US refused to agree to waive Mrs Sacoolas’s immunity, and a month later she and her family were withdrawn from the UK and returned to the US.”
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Harry’s mum, Charlotte Charles, blamed the FCO for giving her “no other option but to start a campaign for justice”. She accused the US of abusing the system for diplomatic immunity, saying: “They saw the loophole and they abused it to their advantage.
“The Americans just pushed it through and the guys that are working for us just couldn’t do anything about it, and it just angers me that our senior guys weren’t involved quicker, like the Americans. They were on it, our guys were not.”
She added: “I think if they were, we may have been able to start grieving a lot sooner than we did, because we wouldn’t have been feeling like we had no other option but to start a campaign for justice. If our UK government were a lot more on the ball and had given us reassurance that they were working with us rather than us feeling like they were against us, we wouldn’t have had to in those really early days… go off and fight for justice.
“That for me is an unforgivable part of the early days of the campaign – I cannot forgive the Foreign Office for what they, in my eyes, made us do.”
The review by Dame Anne’s said that while officials and ministers in the Foreign Office were “shocked” by the initial US response there were “failings and omissions in the department”.
It added: “The issue was not recognised as a crisis and escalated to a sufficiently high level at an early stage, losing opportunities to influence, rather than respond to, events. Direct communication with the family was late, sporadic and often overtaken by events, and the FCO was slow to recognise that the family were allies in achieving justice and securing other necessary changes.”
But it said there have been “notable changes” including closing the loophole in relation to prosecuting dependents alongside road safety improvements. Among its recommendations – accepted by the government – the review said in high-profile and sensitive cases with complex diplomatic issues, there “should be regular and direct FCDO contact with families or victims”.
Harry’s family spent three years campaigning for justice, which saw them meet US President Donald Trump in the White House. Ms Sacoolas eventually pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving via video link at the Old Bailey in December 2022. She later received an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “I have huge respect for the dignity and resolve Harry’s family has shown throughout the period since his tragic death. On behalf of the UK government, I thank Dame Anne Owers for undertaking this important review, and I accept her recommendations for the FCDO in full.
“We are committed to learning the lessons from this tragedy – especially on support for victims, ensuring that no family facing a crisis of this kind should have to fight for the support they rightly deserve.”
