US spy who killed Harry Dunn won’t go to prison
A US spy who admitted killing motorcyclist Harry Dunn while driving on the wrong side of the road will not go to prison, a judge indicated yesterday.
Anne Sacoolas, 45, left the country within three weeks of the 19-year- old’s death near a US military base after she was granted diplomatic immunity.
Yesterday she finally admitted causing death by careless driving more than three years after the incident. But a judge said the highest penalty she had been asked to impose was a suspended sentence.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb asked the American defendant to attend court next month for sentencing, but acknowledged she had no power to compel her to do so.
Sacoolas only admitted the lesser charge of death by careless driving, with a maximum fiveyear penalty, and denied causing death by dangerous driving, punishable by 14 years behind bars.
But controversially the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to proceed to trial on the more serious charge after prosecutor Duncan Atkinson, KC, said an American citizen would have less ‘familiarity of our road traffic laws’.
He said: ‘The culpability of an overseas national without experience of driving on the roads of this country can properly be approached as less than that of a UK national.’
The teenager’s parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, who have long campaigned for justice, held their heads in their hands as Sacoolas pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey. Dressed in a white pussybow blouse, the wife of a US diplomat stumbled over her words as she appeared via videolink, initially saying ‘guilty’ to a charge of death by dangerous driving, quickly correcting herself to ‘not guilty’.
Gasps rang out from the public gallery where around 20 of Mr Dunn’s family and friends watched on, some bursting into tears.
Sacoolas, a mother-of-three, was driving a Volvo XC90 on the wrong side of the road for around 26 seconds before hitting the biker just outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on August 27, 2019.
The case caused a crisis in transatlantic relations after diplomatic immunity was asserted on her behalf by the US government and she was able to leave the UK 19 days later. An extradition request for Sacoolas was submitted by the Home Office, but that was rejected by the US State Department in January 2020.
Sacoolas then agreed to appear via videolink for the proceedings while remaining in Washington.
Yesterday Mrs Justice CheemaGrubb said there were a range of sentencing options from a mediumlevel community order to prison, but she indicated that a suspended sentence was the maximum being advocated by the parties. She said: ‘I direct Mrs Sacoolas attend court to be sentenced.
‘If the sentence... is one that does not involve immediate custody there is to be no barrier to her returning home after the hearing.’
The judge also imposed an interim driving ban ahead of sentencing next month when she asked Sacoolas to return to the UK.
After the hearing Harry’s mother said: ‘I do very much hope that she listens to the judge’s words and makes the effort to come back because that will truly show us all how remorseful she is.
‘It’s all well and good saying you’re sorry but demonstrating you are is another matter.’
Earlier, Mrs Charles said she was happy that the CPS had accepted a lesser plea, adding that her family ‘didn’t wish to separate her from her children, it’s not their fault’.
She said: ‘Getting to court and getting to where we are now has been the most monumental thing for me... I can breathe easier. I don’t have that guilt on my shoulders.’
‘No barrier to her returning home’