Final farewell to Harry
THE family of tragic teenager Harry Dunn have scattered his ashes at his favourite seaside spot, on what his mum called “the hardest day we’ve ever had to face in our lives”.
The 19-year-old motorcyclist has been the subject of an international controversy since he was killed in August last year near an RAF base.
He was knocked off his bike by a car driven by US diplomat’s wife Anne Sacoolas, but she left the country claiming immunity before police could bring charges.
Yesterday Harry’s mum Charlotte Charles and dad Tim Dunn said they chose to scatter his ashes at a spot near Weymouth, Dorset, where the Dunns enjoyed family holidays.
Alongside their partners, Bruce and Tracey, they met with family and friends for a private ceremony on the island of Portland.
Charlotte said they were “setting him free”, but vowed to keep fighting to get suspect Ms Sacoolas, 42, back to the UK.
Harry died after the crash on August 29 just outside RAF Croughton, Northants. Asked before the private ceremony if her son’s funeral provided any closure, Charlotte said: “No, and we were really numb back then, very much a bunch of zombies, to put it mildly.
“Obviously we’ve been through so much since then – we’ve been to hell and back on many, many occasions.
“We’re not numb any more, we just hurt all day every day.
“The hurt is there constantly and it never, ever goes away. But now, 11 months on, today is going to be the hardest day we’ve ever had to face in our lives, and I can’t imagine it getting any harder.”
She went on: “You shouldn’t have to scatter your own child’s ashes.
“We can rest assured that he’s definitely out there riding the skies and going everywhere that he wants to go.
“We’ve found a beautiful spot where we are going to take him and we’re sure that the wind will carry his ashes and the waves will be splashing up on the rocks to help him travel too.”
Harry’s case has been taken to the top of the US and UK governments, with his parents meeting Donald Trump. Boris Johnson has put pressure on the US to extradite Ms Sacoolas.
But Harry’s mum said the family had been “deprived of the ability to grieve” as the case rumbles on. She said: “We will keep fighting. “It doesn’t matter what today takes out of us, tomorrow will be yet another day of fighting.”
Dad Tim said the family had visited Weymouth every year since 2002. He added: “Poor Harry died last year and today is exactly the last day he was here.”
NOTHING will take away the heartache experienced by the family of Harry Dunn, who gathered in Weymouth, Dorset, yesterday to scatter the teenager’s ashes, but they should not be denied justice.
The seaside resort was the 19-year-old’s favourite town, and it was on the same day last year he was there for the final time.
His family and those who loved him will not abandon their campaign to get US citizen Anne Sacoolas to return to the UK to address her role in the road crash in which the young motorcyclist lost his life.
As his mother said: “The hurt is there constantly and it never, ever goes away.”
Ms Sacoolas cannot heal that wound but compassion, decency and justice alike demand she does what she can to ease this anguish by coming back to these shores.