Harry Dunn’s family reject ‘pay-off ’ offer from Trump
DONALD TRUMP tried to pay off Harry Dunn’s grieving parents when they visited the White House, the family spokesman said yesterday.
The President was “standing by, ready to write a cheque” during the meeting at which the teenager’s parents lobbied for his alleged killer to return to the UK to face justice.
The 19-year-old died after his motorbike was hit by a car being driven on the wrong side of the road by Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American intelligence agent who then claimed diplomatic immunity.
Radd Seiger, the Dunn family spokesman, disclosed yesterday that at the October meeting in the White House, Mr Trump had said the “Treasury department will sort this out”. Mrs Sacoolas was waiting in a next door room, but the parents declined Mr Trump’s invitation for them to meet her.
Mr Seiger said: “You can imagine how intense the atmosphere was in there. What Trump said was to Robert O’brien, his national security adviser. What he was clearly saying was the Treasury will sort you out. Clearly the government are expecting to pay the bill. The arrangement was, let’s get Harry’s family to hug and kiss the lady [Mrs Sacoolas] and pay them off. That was the plan. It makes me sick to the stomach.”
Charlotte Charles, the boy’s mother, has said money “is not going to bring Harry back”.
Mrs Sacoolas, 42, a mother-of-three, is alleged to have been driving out of the RAF Croughton, a US airbase in Northants, on August 27 when the crash happened.
Mrs Charles and Harry’s father Tim
Dunn yesterday met Northamptonshire police and crime commissioner Stephen Mold to discuss the force’s the investigation into their son’s death.
After the meeting Mr Mold admitted there were lessons to be learned and said he would look at ways in which the family could be better supported. Mrs Charles said after the meeting: “We want her [Mrs Sacoolas] to come back and we want the systems all the way around it to just tell us the truth.”
Asked if a cheque from Mr Trump would help them, Mrs Charles said: “No, it’s not. It’s not going to bring Harry back. Justice has to be done. They all need to learn that this can’t happen again and they need to learn that things need to be put into place to stop this.”
Mr Dunn said he hoped Mrs Sacoolas would come back to the UK to face justice. “It is frustrating,” he added.
The police have passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service in which it is understood officers are recommending Mrs Sacoolas be charged with causing death by dangerous driving, although it is not clear if prosecutors can charge Mrs Sacoolas with any offence.