Foreign Office failed to treat Harry Dunn’s death as crisis, damning report finds
An independent review has concluded that the Foreign Office failed to treat as a crisis the case of a US woman who fled the country claiming diplomatic immunity after causing the death of a British teenager in a road accident.
The government was told there had been “failures and negligence” in handling matters after Harry Dunn’s death and that opportunities to influence the US had been missed.
While David Lammy was foreign secretary in July, he launched a review into how the then-dubious Anne Sacoolas case was handled.
Senior British officials have told the US government they “must have felt” they could put Sacoolas on the next flight home after the fatal car crash.
Harry, 19, died in August 2019 when a car driven by Sacoolas crashed into his motorbike near the RAF Croughton exit in Northamptonshire. He was driving on the wrong side of the road.
Sacoolas, the wife of a CIA agent working near the air base, claimed diplomatic immunity because of a loophole unknown at the time to most politicians and police officers who first questioned her.
Former chief inspector of prisons Dame Anne Owers, who conducted the review, emphasized the following: report There were “failures and negligence” on the part of the department in its handling of the case, including failing to recognize the family as allies in ensuring justice.
It is understood Dame Anne told the Dunn family that it was her “strong view” that then foreign secretary Dominic Raab should have been involved “much earlier in the process” after expressing fears of potentially “unpleasant headlines” after her private office copied a note three days after the crash.
In the future, he recommends “an immediate increase in resources” for deaths caused by exceptional circumstances such as diplomatic immunity, with a mandatory early increase for ministers and senior officials.
Its report includes 12 recommendations focused on improving the government’s response to deaths and serious incidents and support for families and victims.
At the time, the US government was thought to have exploited a loophole in the immunity agreement at US air base RAF Croughton, which granted immunity to the dependents of administrative and technical personnel but not the personnel themselves.
Dame Anne’s report says: “From the documents I have seen, there is no doubt that those directly involved hoped and expected that, regardless of other considerations, the US would, as one put it, ‘do the right thing’.
“But there was a significant delay in understanding that this needed to be a priority across the department as a whole and in escalating it to a sufficiently high level.”
Sacoolas eventually pleaded guilty via video link at the Old Bailey in December 2022 to causing death by careless driving and was later sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.
Responding to the review, Mr Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, said: “The report confirms what we have experienced every day for more than six years – mistakes were made, opportunities were missed and our family was not treated with the honesty or urgency that any grieving parent deserves.”
The findings of the report will be presented to parliament. The government said it had fully accepted all the report’s recommendations, 10 of which related to the Foreign Office, one to the Ministry of Justice and one to the Crown Prosecution Service.
Secretary of State Yvette Cooper said: “We are determined to learn the lessons of this tragedy, particularly in support of victims, ensuring that no family facing this type of crisis has to struggle for the support they deserve.”
Dame Anne said she then noticed a more positive government approach to engaging with the family and delivering significant change had developed.
Since 2019, the government has prevented U.S. citizens from claiming immunity from criminal prosecution.
