Justice for Harry Dunn Who Was Killed by Anne Sacoolas Is Long Overdue!

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

As I sit in my Kailyard I wonder often about the future.

Anne Sacoolas drove out of her home and onto the roads in the United Kingdom. She was new to the area and new to the country. Within a few minutes of having left her house she was involved in an accident. That accident led to Harry Dunn losing his life.

Harry lost his life in a crash near Royal Air Force Base, RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in 2019. He was on his motorbike, Anne Sacoolas was in her car. Anne Sacoolas “has never denied that the accident was her fault.” The problem is that she, straight afterwards, fled the area, fled her house and fled the UK. Claiming diplomatic immunity, she has never faced any kind of court and the family of Harry Dunn has never had any form of justice.

In January 2020, the United Kingdom, through the Crown Prosecution Service, applied for her to be extradited and this request was rejected by the US government.

Harry’s parents flew to the US and met with the then US President, Donald J. Trump to press their case for justice. He met them in the White House. He offered a meeting with Anne Sacoolas as he had apparently also got her to come to the White House: she was in an adjoining room.

The parents, believing it to be some kind of stunt, refused.

They want it justice to be served properly.

I have never lost a child. I don’t know what that feels like. I know people who have, and I have seen the effect it had on them, physically, mentally and in terms of their relationships with themselves, their support network and the outside world. Devastation does not quite sound big enough to describe their feelings.

To lose a child to a disease, an incurable illness or some form of natural atrocity, must be bad enough but to lose a child to a criminal act?

But Anne Sacoolas does not believe it was a criminal act. She claims that such a crash would not be prosecuted criminally in the United States. Or at least that is what her lawyer, says. Apparently, in the United States, these cases are only prosecuted where there is evidence of recklessness that rises to the level of close to intent – drunk driving, distracted driving, a hit-and-run situation or excessive speeding.

This may be one of the reasons the United States was not prepared to waive her diplomatic immunity.

Her lawyer has been working hard, apparently, to resolve the case. Mrs. Anne Sacoolas has offered to do some form of community service to atone for her sin thus making a “contribution” to his memory.

Sacoolas has also offered “to take other steps to try to bring some peace to the family.”

The crash which merited headline news all over the UK, happened because “Ms Sacoolas had driven “instinctively” on the right-hand side of the road after leaving the US military base where her husband had a job covered by diplomatic immunity. She had only been in the UK “for a few weeks” and had made “a tragic mistake.” After the crash she stayed and fully cooperated with the police, was breathalysed, gave over her phone and was interviewed for several hours. She had not been drinking nor using her phone whilst driving.

The Dunn family have never said that his was anything but a tragic accident, however, they need to feel the weight of justice for their son.

Grandstanding Presidents aside, justice in the UK for an offence which is prosecutable under British law should be the very least two democratic countries with fine legal traditions should stand up for.

To suggest that the judgment should be acceptable to the alleged perpetrator, is insulting. I shall only face justice if we are only going to make me do X is not in the gift of the person who is being accused of the crime.

At least not in a fully functioning and independent justice system.

Whilst Sacoolas has said, through her lawyer that she is willing to meet with the family and supply them with any information they seek to try and give some measure of peace it is hard to know what information is missing.

Radd Seiger, the Dunn family’s spokesman, made things crystal clear when he reportedly said, “We know she [Mrs Sacoolas] did not intend to kill Harry, but in our country, as in their country, if you drive dangerously – 20 seconds down the wrong side of the road and end up killing a child – that is not something we tolerate. We expect justice to be done.”

Diplomatic immunity was never intended to allow people from one country to flout the laws of their host. When it ends with death, no matter how that comes about, there must be some form of justice delivered. Within a country where the laws are fair, democracy is both King and Queen of the system, there must be trust and Anne Sacoolas must stand up and take justice for the man she killed. Over here we think that it is time for her over there to do more than just speak the words…

A view from the new Kailyard or, how you look over there, from over here…

(kailyard n. a genre of sentimental Scottish literature turned into effective invective comment from one Donald worth reading…)

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