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THE FAMILY OF British teenager Harry Dunn has described Donald Trump as “very graceful” after meeting with the US president at the White House.
But the teenager’s parents said they are no “further along” after being told that the US woman allegedly responsible for their son’s death would not return to the UK.
Anne Sacoolas left the UK after the crash in Northamptonshire which killed the 19-year-old in August.
Tim Dunn, Harry’s father, said: “I think the president was very graceful and spoke very well to us.”
“Obviously we’ve just met the president and we never thought we’d get this far but I don’t know whether we’re any further along.”
Harry’s mother, Charlotte Charles, said: “When he [President Trump] held my hand, I gripped it a lot tighter and I was honest with him and just said, as I said a while ago, ‘if it was your son you would be doing the same as us’.
“He actually gripped my hand a little bit tighter and said ‘Yes, I would be’.
“And that’s when he said he would try and look at this from a different angle.
“He seemed to understand that our grief has been locked in for seven weeks now on a case that should have been very, very clear-cut.”
“He listened to Charlotte very well – she spoke excellently to him and he was very understanding,” Harry’s father Tim Dunn said.
“I genuinely do think he will look to resolve this in a way that will help us,” he added.
Tim Dunn said they had turned down the chance to meet Anne Sacoolas at the White House: “We weren’t ready to meet her, it would have been too rushed.”
But he added that the meeting “didn’t feel like a stunt – they didn’t try and force it onto us”.
“But I don’t think it would be appropriate to meet her without therapists or mediators in the room,” Charlotte Charles said.
Their campaign has attracted interest either side of the Atlantic due to the chief suspect being the wife of a US diplomat stationed in the UK.
Sacoolas has previously said she is “terribly sorry” about the incident and that she had “no time to react” when she saw Harry Dunn’s motorbike following the incident near RAF Croughton on 27 August.
In a post on the Justice 4 Harry GoFundMe page, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn said of the meeting at the White House: “We are grateful for the invitation, which we hope represents a positive development in our fight for justice.
“Our priority, as any parent will understand, is justice for our child. We believe this can only be achieved if Anne Sacoolas returns to England and engages properly with the justice system, where she will be treated fairly in a proper investigation of what happened to our son on that day – an investigation that cannot happen without her co-operation.”
Friends tell each other the truth. If Britain and America are friends then we believe there should be no possibility of a citizen of one country hiding from justice in another while falsely claiming a privilege such as diplomatic immunity.
The family, who met Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in the UK last week, have also demanded an investigation over the Foreign Office’s (FCO) advice to Northamptonshire Police that Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity.
They are demanding to see all emails, messages and notes sent in relation to her immunity status.
Speaking in New York, family spokesman Radd Seiger said: “We want to conduct an investigation into the FCO’s decision to advise Northamptonshire Police that this lady had the benefit of diplomatic immunity.
“What we don’t know is whether somebody cocked up or whether they were put under pressure by the Americans to concede.”
If they are not happy with the documents, the family say they will then ask for a judge’s opinion on the lawfulness of the FCO’s decision.
“If we’re not satisfied, then we’ll go to a judicial review and ask a High Court judge to review it all,” Seiger added.
On Saturday, before the family left for the US, they received a letter from Raab, saying that Sacoolas no longer had immunity.
“The letter is worded very carefully, they’re not saying it’s just a change of heart – they are saying that it’s an evolution,” said Mr Seiger.
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Whilst not completely analogous, in 1997 a Georgian diplomat killed a US citizen in a drink-drive incident in DC. Then Georgian President, Shevardnadze, was pressured into waiving immunity – which he did and the diplomat got 21 years.
The boots on the other foot now and they won’t. Can’t same I’m surprised though. That “special relationship” doesn’t extend to manslaughter it seems.
I think they are the graceful ones, I would be so angry. I hope they get justice
The woman involved is the worse kind of coward . No one thinks for one minute that she meant to kill this boy , and it was an accident . But she refuses to take responsibility for her actions . Is this what she is teaching her children ? She is reportedly very ‘ distressed ‘ about it . Bullsh**. Has she any understanding what so ever that she has forever changed not only cut a young life short but also changed the lives of a entire family . I can think of only two reasons why she would not take even financial responsibility for this accident either she was not operating with her full senses or she had no insurance . In my opinion she is the worse kind of human being on the planet . I hope her conscience troubles her the rest of her life !
@Mary Mc Carthy: to be fair, there’s a lot more to this than meets the eye. Her husband isn’t a diplomat, he’s an NSA spook ego who was in Britain to spy on the communications of UK citizens so the intel could be passed back to the UK. It’s a ruse the UK and US use to bypass their laws against mass spying on their own citizens. Neither of them had any immunity. They were spirited out of the country to keep the system secret. The press.knows this but continues with the victim that they had immunity
@Mary Mc Carthy: One of the reasons for diplomatic immunity is to stop a citizen from getting an unfair trial based on their political, professional and personal circumstances. In the last decade, 7 UK citizens have been protected from extradition to the US to stand trial–two of them after hacking into 330M’s defense system servers and a major utilities system. Protected using their autism to say the system they would be put into would be unfair to them. You cannot expect something you are not willing to do yourself.
@Mary Morrisey: What I expect Mary , is justice for this child’s death ! It’s not a tit for tat operation …. this is a life taken much too soon and a family in pieces .
@Mary Morrisey: 2 wrongs don’t make a right
Wonder what Trump would do if the show was on the other foot…?
@Noel Doherty: rendition.
@Noel Doherty: Trump would have to take it out of his mouth first .
She is sorry and upset for this that she caused such devastation. So sorry she will not return to face serious charges.
@Alan Scott: “She had no time to react!”…….running off back to the states like a yellow bellied coward is a reaction!!!
So, is ‘Great’ Britain just a US puppet state?
That man can do no right.
@Paul Furey: he can if he chooses too.
The US don’t extradite their citizens even for ‘allies’. They only demand extradition, coupled with financial threats, from others.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: the wont sign up to the UN war crimes charter and they refuse to ever hand over any of their troops on war crimes charges.
@Conoroconnor: definition of a rogue state.
The guardian has reported that Sacoolas was in the next room and that Trump wanted a big reveal – like a Jerry Springer episode (my description). The family described Trump announcing this to them as ‘a bombshell’.
@Anne Marie Devlin: yeah the description of the by the Guardian is much different to this version.
This is horrific, and one can only imagine the pain that this poor family are going through. The woman responsible is a coward, she has taken away a human life and yet she is not prepared to take responsibility for her actions. Worse again she hides behind her government who unbelievably are defending her.
@Aging Lothario: I wonder was it her choice to get out of the UK?
I do wonder if the family could take a case in the US against Anne Sacoonas, over there you can use some one for looking at your wrongly. I know it’s not the same but it keeps the case in the headlines and puts pressure on both governments. Also, they should sue the British Government for telling the police that she has immunity, although now there is a question if she really did. After that start a go fund me and for the 2020 elections in the US – put an ad out everywhere, how Trump protected a murder of a child.
I’ve just heard a Russian chess player on Sky News explain how Putin is classed as a dictator for poisening a Russian spy on British soil and Killing an innocent British citizen in the process. Yet the British class Trump as their Allie and friend. Isn’t this the same? Why aren’t people in Britain calling Trump a ditator when he refuses to extradite this Woman who killed an innocent boy.
@Margaret Doyle: People call Putin a dictator because he murders and imprisons his political opponents, has a grip over state media and has been in power for 20 years, through blatant abuse of political office.
Trump isn’t a dictator although he wishes he was, but he is as bad as Putin is morally and ethically.
@Margaret Doyle: Putin is a dictator because he does bad things and is one of “them”. Trump does bad things and is “leader of the free world” because he is one of “us”.
He clearly played them. Dear God they are animals in America. How can that woman live with herself.
So much for the so called special relationship. Can Boris and trumps mate Nigel not get it sorted out.
The culprits husband isn’t a diplomat and isn’t covered by immunity. The car she was driving didn’t have diplomatic plates nor would it as neither were diplomats.
What could anyone expect from this uncaring idiot
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