Stony-heart Sacoolas doesn’t have an ounce of decency
Try to imagine the worst thing that could happen to your family. Imagine that one of your children, one of your darlings, walks out of the home one day and never comes back.
Gone for ever, just like that. With not even a chance to say goodbye or tell them how much you love them before their sudden, shocking death. Leaving you with nothing but a scrabble of memories and a broken heart.
The future that you hoped for has been wiped out, now only the void of grief beckons. That is what happened to the Dunn family.
Their son Harry was 19 years old when he was killed in a road crash near his home in Croughton, Northamptonshire, last August.
He was riding his motorcycle when it collided head- on with a Volvo XC90 being driven by Anne Sacoolas — the wife of a U.S. intelligence officer stationed at nearby rAF Croughton. In a fatal moment of forgetfulness, she was driving on the wrong side of the road, and she ploughed straight into Harry.
Her own son, with her in the car, was unharmed. After a 43-minute wait for an ambulance, Harry died of his injuries in hospital. It was a terrible accident, a tragedy for all involved. But most of all, I think we must agree, for the Dunn family.
yet their agony has been exacerbated by the fact that Mrs Sacoolas promptly escaped justice and culpability by claiming diplomatic immunity and fleeing home to America before the law could catch up with her.
This week she was photographed getting on with her life, driving her children to school — the kind of happy, everyday family moments that are now denied to the Dunn family.
NoTHING
can compensate them for the loss of their son, but to wilfully deny them any frayed thread of justice is shameful.
If Anne Sacoolas had a shred of decency in her body, surely she would come back to the UK and accept responsibility for what she did? To look them in the eye and say I am so, so sorry for your loss — before accepting her fate in court?
It wouldn’t bring Harry back, but at least the Dunn family would be comforted by the balm of righteousness and consoled by the fact that Mrs Sacoolas had finally accepted that not only did Harry’s life matter, but that his death demands resolution, too.
Mrs Sacoolas is clearly keen to avoid a potential charge of death by dangerous driving and possible imprisonment if she steps foot in the UK again.
yet such a terrible outcome is by no means guaranteed. (And certainly not if she had stayed to face the consequences in the first place.)
Last year another U.S. citizen who accidentally killed someone in very similar circumstances was spared a jail sentence.
American tourist Caroline Emmet, 56, was heading for Edinburgh Airport when she drove along the wrong side of the A198 road for 500 yards, not realising her mistake.
on a blind bend she crashed into another car, killing passenger Elizabeth Henderson, 83.
Mrs Emmet was indeed convicted of death by dangerous driving.
She was banned from driving for three years and sentenced to carry out 500 hours of unpaid community work in France, where she now lives.
The Scottish judge noted that Emmet’s previous driving record was exemplary and that there were no aggravating issues such as drink or drug-driving, driving too fast or using a mobile phone at the wheel. He also told Mrs Emmet: ‘ you have shown remorse which I accept is genuine.’
Does this not seem like a far more civilised outcome for a terrible tragedy? A healing of some emotional wounds, a feeling of justice being done for all parties, yet the law being applied with compassion and understanding?
Far better than this queasy stand- off, as stony-hearted Anne Sacoolas gets on with her life and refuses even to acknowledge the suffering of Harry’s grieving parents Tim and Charlotte.
This week they called the new images of Mrs Sacoolas getting on with her life ‘sickening’.
They have called on her to show a jot of compassion, to do the right thing — but there has been no response at all.
Since Harry’s death, his family have campaigned with dignity and determination for some form of legal retribution but so far unsuccessfully. So far nothing.
President Trump hasn’t been able to help, neither has Boris Johnson, nor the British Government.
They are the little people, stuck in the middle of a giant international standoff. For this, they deserve all our sympathy. But more than that, they deserve closure.
Anne Sacoolas should talk a long hard look in the mirror — and do the right thing. This isn’t going to end until she does.