Harry Dunn parents lose High Court appeal over Scoolas diplomatic immunity

Harry Dunn’s grieving parents have lost a High Court battle against the Foreign Office over Anne Sacoolas’ diplomatic immunity status.

Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn lodged a legal challenge against the government after US citizen Sacoolas was granted diplomatic immunity after allegedly killing Harry, and then using that status to flee the UK with the full knowledge of the Foreign Office.

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A local prosecutor appears to have dismissed the possibility of subjecting the woman accused of killing Harry Dunn to a remote trial from the US.

Harry, 19, was killed in August 2019 after former US spy, Sacoolas, crashed into his motorbike outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire, which houses a US spy base.   

She was driving on the wrong side of the road at the time.

Sacoolas, who is married to a serving US spy formerly based at RAF Croughton, subsequently evaded justice by claiming diplomatic immunity and fleeing the UK.

In December 2019, the Crown Prosecution Service (the UK’s prosecuting authority) charged the US fugitive with causing death by dangerous driving, an offense which can attract a 14-year custodial sentence.

Despite the official charge, Sacoolas refuses to return to the UK, a decision that is fully supported by the US State Department.

US continues to display arrogance in Harry Dunn case

The US State Department has all but ruled out extraditing the woman charged with the tragic death of young Harry Dunn.

The legal challenge mounted by Harry’s parents argued that Sacoolas should not have been granted diplomatic immunity.

But at the High Court, Lord Justice Flaux and Justice Saini concluded that “Mrs Sacoolas enjoyed immunity from UK criminal jurisdiction at the time of Harry’s death”.

The High Court judges also rejected a claim by Harry’s parents that the Foreign Office (which has since been rebranded as the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) had “usurped” Northamptonshire Police’s investigation into their son’s death.

The judges concluded that British officials had “sought to assist rather than obstruct Northamptonshire Police in their investigation”.

But following the High court ruling, Harry’s mother, Charlotte Charles, was defiant.

In a statement she said: “The governments [UK and US] need to understand that this court ruling is just a blip along the way”.

"I promised my boy [Harry] I would get him justice and that is just what Team Harry are going to do. No one is going to stand in our way”, Harry’s mother pledged.

"Right from the start our team have advised us that Anne Sacoolas did not have diplomatic immunity when she killed Harry and that advice is just (as) strong now as it was at the start of our campaign”, she concluded.

The Dunn family’s case centers on a 1995 agreement between the UK and the US, granting immunity to administrative and technical staff at the RAF base, which the US waived in relation to "acts performed outside the course of their duties".

Lawyers for Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn contended that the Foreign Office "took upon itself the authority to resolve the question of immunity and ultimately and unlawfully decided to accept the US embassy's decision that Anne Sacoolas had immunity".

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