Trump: I’ll sort out meeting between diplomat’s wife and parents of teen crash victim
DONALD Trump said he will arrange a meeting between the family of a teenage car crash victim and the American diplomat’s wife who was the driver.
In an astonishing intervention last night, the US President admitted there is ‘tremendous anger’ over Harry Dunn’s death and urged the families to meet ‘so there can be some healing’.
Mr Trump described the death of the 19-year-old as a ‘terrible accident’ and said that Anne Sacoolas, 42, was driving on the wrong side of the road when she hit him.
But he made no commitment to waive her diplomatic immunity, or return her to the UK to face further police questioning. Speaking at the White House, the President said: ‘We’re going to speak to the wife of the diplomat... and see what we can come up with so that there can be some healing.’
Mr Trump added that he ‘hates this case’ and admitted it was ‘a very, very complex issue because we are talking about diplomatic immunity’.
The President’s intervention comes after Harry’s family spoke of their ‘disappointment and anger’ following a meeting with the Foreign Secretary.
Harry’s parents were left in tears after spending 45 minutes speaking to Dominic Raab about pushing for the return of Mrs Sacoolas.
Charlotte Charles, Harry’s mother, was visibly distressed as she told how she felt they had been let down by the Government, branding the meeting little more than ‘a publicity stunt’.
She and Harry’s father, Tim Dunn, said they had their hopes raised by the prospect of an audience with the Foreign Secretary.
But they said Mr Raab told them that Mrs Sacoolas has diplomatic immunity and that it is highly unlikely waiver UK Speaking to face so the she questioning. at US a can press will return ever conference grant to the a in Mrs Westminster Charles said: after ‘I can’t the really meeting, see the point as to why we were invited to see Dominic Raab.
‘We are no further forward than where we were this time last week. Part of me is feeling like it was just a publicity stunt on the UK Government side to show they are trying to help.’ Boris Johnson last night urged Donald Trump to intervene to ensure Mrs Sacoolas, who was driving a SUV Volvo in the collision with Harry Dunn, faces justice. The Prime Minister spoke to the US President last night to ask him to ‘reconsider the US position’, a Downing Street spokesman said. The parents said they felt they now had choice but to begin their own legal action. They have instructed Geoffrey Robertson QC and human rights lawyer Mark Stephens to begin their fight, and are launching a civil case against Mrs Sacoolas in America.
Mrs Charles, 44, who works in a GP surgery, said: ‘We will still keep going. There’s still fire in our bellies to continue.’
Becoming tearful, she described the ‘nausea’ she feels ‘waking up each morning and realising you have lost your boy’.
Harry’s father said he felt ‘extremely let down’ by the Government, adding: ‘I am so disappointed. He was a beautiful lad.’
Harry was on his way to his father’s house in Brackley, Northamptonshire, when he was involved in a collision with Mrs Sacoolas’s car on August 27.
The diplomat’s wife had reportedly pulled out of RAF Croughton, a US intelligence hub in Britain, on the wrong side of the road and collided with the teenager’s motorbike at the brow of a hill. Harry suffered horrific injuries and died in hospital later that night.
Mrs Sacoolas, whose husband is understood to work in intelligence at the base, was initially cooperative with police.
But Northamptonshire Police were later told she and her family had left the country and that she was citing diplomatic immunity. Requests for the US embassy to grant a waiver have so far been refused. Lawyer Radd Seiger, who is representing the family, said the Foreign Office tried to prevent him from attending the meeting in London yesterday afternoon.
It was only when the Dunns said they did not want to proceed without him that he was allowed in.
He said when Mr Raab spoke to the American government they simply reiterated, ‘No. You can’t have her back. She’s protected by immunity.’ The lawyer said they would now take their fight to Washington and invited the President Trump to meet them.
‘If meeting with President Trump would help us get a step closer to seek justice for Harry, to get justice for that boy who died that night needlessly, one of the most wonderful kids in our community, if that’s what it takes, then I will extend an invitation now to President Trump. Meet us. Let’s have a chat. Nobody wants to litigate.’
Mr Raab said: ‘We are continuing to press the US authorities for their cooperation to ensure the police can pursue this case unimpeded and to allow Harry’s family to get justice.’