Harry Dunn's Parents Receive Another Blow

UK judges confirm US woman charged in fatal crash had diplomatic immunity
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 24, 2020 7:54 AM CST
Harry Dunn's Parents Receive Another Blow
Family advisor Radd Seiger, center, sits with Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, parents 19-year-old Harry Dunn, at their home in Charlton, England, on Tuesday.   (Jacob King/PA via AP)

The parents of a British teen who was killed in a car crash lost a court battle with the UK government Tuesday over whether their son's alleged killer, an American woman, had diplomatic immunity. Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn have been seeking justice for 19-year-old Harry Dunn, who died after his motorbike crashed into a car driven on the wrong side of the road outside a US airbase in central England last August, per the AP. The car's driver, Anne Sacoolas, left for the US several weeks after the collision. Officials said she was entitled to diplomatic immunity because her husband worked at the airbase.

Sacoolas, 43, was charged in December with causing death by dangerous driving, but the US State Department rejected a request to extradite her to Britain to face trial. Dunn's parents launched the court case to argue that Britain's Foreign Office wrongly decided Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity. But two judges rejected that Tuesday, ruling that the American "enjoyed immunity from UK criminal jurisdiction at the time of Harry's death." The teen's mother said she was determined to continue finding justice for her son and was backed by British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. "We're clear that Anne Sacoolas needs to face justice in the UK and we will support the family with their legal claim in the US," he said. (This follows a wanted notice from Interpol.)

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