UK charges U.S. diplomat’s wife over teenager’s death
LONDON >> An American diplomat’s wife who left the U.K. after being involved in a road accident that killed a British teenager has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving, British prosecutors said Friday.
The Crown Prosecution Service said it had begun extradition proceedings against Anne Sacoolas.
The decision to charge Sacoolas, who has claimed diplomatic immunity, has caused tensions between the U.K. and the United States. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab welcomed the move but the State Department called it unhelpful.
British police say 19-year-old motorcycle rider Harry Dunn died in August when he was hit by a car driven by Sacoolas, whose husband was an intelligence officer at RAF Croughton, a military base in central England used by U.S. forces. Sacoolas claimed diplomatic immunity and left Britain after the crash.
Dunn’s family has urged her to return and face British justice, and met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington as part of their campaign.
Britain’s prosecution service said it had authorized police to charge Sacoolas with causing death by dangerous driving “following a thorough review of the evidence available.”
Prosecutors said they had begun extradition proceedings. Sacoolas’s lawyer, Amy Jeffress, said her client had co-operated fully with the investigation but “will not return voluntarily to the United Kingdom to face a potential jail sentence for what was a terrible but unintentional accident.”