The mother of a teenager who died after being hit by car being driven on the wrong side of the road by an American outside an RAF base has spoken of how she kept a promise made to him on the day he died that he would get justice. Harry Dunn's mother Charlotte Charles talked movingly of her vow after American Anne Sacoolas admitted causing the teenager's death by careless driving.
Sacoolas, 45, was driving on the wrong side of the road outside RAF Croughton, near Brackley, Northamptonshire, on August 27 2019, when she crashed her Volvo into Harry's motorbike. He was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford but died a short time later.
Harry's family and the UK government fought for over three years for Sacoolas to face justice, Northants Live reported. Following Sacoolas's guilty plea, Ms Charles said: "I can talk to him now and tell him we done it. Promise complete."
In an emotional interview with the PA news agency, Harry's mother, Ms Charles, and father, Tim Dunn, described their struggle since their son's death. Although the interview was recorded before Sacoolas's appearance by video link at the Old Bailey, the family were already aware of her guilty plea.
Ms Charles, who wept in court as Sacoolas entered her guilty plea, said: "That night was and always will be the worst of our lives. But with my family around us and close friends that were there, all witnessed me kiss him on his forehead and his bruised lip, and promise him that UK justice would be done."
However, she admitted she "had no idea of what laid ahead, had no idea it was going to be this hard." She hoped her promise was heard by Harry "wherever he was." "I've never broken a promise to either of my boys, and I damn well wasn't going to start the minute I found it was not going to be as easy as I would have assumed it should have been," she said.
The campaign to have Sacoolas face a UK court was long one. It began in September 2019, when the US government asserted diplomatic immunity from prosecution on her behalf and she was flown back to the US. Harry's family then took their fight for justice to the US, including meeting then president Donald Trump in the White House, where they refused to meet with Sacoolas who was in the room next door.
Then, in December 2019, the CPS announced it was charging Sacoolas with causing death by dangerous driving. In January 2020, the Home Office submitted an extradition request for Sacoolas, but it was rejected, a decision the US State Department later said was “final”.
In 2021, the family reached a “resolution” with Sacoolas after filing a civil claim for damages in the US. Sacoolas's lawyers also admitted she was driving on the wrong side of the road before the crash.
After the UK Government said it was seeking a “virtual trial or process” for Sacoolas, the CPS confirmed in December 2019 that the case would be heard before a UK court. The case was due to take place in January 2022 but was delayed and rescheduled for September 2022.
On Thursday, September 29, Sacoolas appeared virtually from the US at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where a judge passed the case to the Old Bailey. On Thursday, she appeared virtually at the Old Bailey and pleaded guilty to killing Harry by careless driving. She will be sentenced in late November, but the court cannot force her to return to the UK to face it.
Speaking of her three-year battle for justice, Harry's mother said: "It was a road crash. It should never have been this difficult. So getting to court and where we are now, has been the most monumental thing ever for me. Because I can talk to him (Harry) now and tell him we done it. Promise complete."
She said she felt she could "breathe easier. I don't have that guilt on my shoulders of not having done it yet. I don't feel guilty towards Harry or myself. I can say that I do feel proud, of me, of us parents, of Niall (Harry's brother), of the whole family. But most of all I feel proud of Harry, because without the values he had when he was with us, I'm not sure we'd have been as strong was we are to get the job done."
Harry's father, Tim, added: "Now what we are coming to the end of this part of the campaign, we realise now that he has actually gone and there's going to be no girlfriends, weddings, grandchildren. We're not gonna see him grow into a beautiful young man or flourish in this world."
"I'm sure he would have done, he was a bright spark, loved life. I think that's going to be the hardest, is not having that opportunity to enjoy his life and see him thrive. We'll never get that. He'll always be 19, and that's going to hurt the most. That's going to take a lot of time to accept."
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
