US diplomat’s wife Anne Sacoolas dodges prison in wrong-way death of UK teen Harry Dunn
The wife of a US diplomat who mowed down a British teen before leaving England got a wrist-slap sentence Thursday that’ll let her dodge prison time.
Anne Sacoolas, 45, received an eight-month suspended sentence and was banned from driving for a year after pleading guilty to causing the death of 19-year-old Harry Dunn in 2019 by driving on the wrong side of the road. She had faced a five-year prison sentence.
Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb allowed Sacoolas to participate in London’s Central Criminal Court by video link from the US.
Cheema-Grubb said the woman’s actions were “not far short of deliberately dangerous driving,” but allowed her to avoid jail time — so long as she doesn’t get in trouble again over the next year — because of her plea and record of good behavior.
But the judge acknowledged that the sentence couldn’t be enforced if Sacoolas remained in the US.
The deadly accident occurred outside RAF Croughton, an air base in eastern England used by American forces. Sacoolas admitted to driving her Volvo on the wrong side of the road and colliding with Dunn, who was on his motorbike.
Sacoolas and her husband, an American intelligence officer, returned to the US in the days after the incident as American officials invoked diplomatic immunity on her behalf, outraging Britons and the Dunn family, who lobbied in vain for years in Washington, DC, and London to force officials to extradite Sacoolas to the UK to face justice.
Charlotte Charles, Dunn’s mother, said in a victim impact statement that his death “haunts me every minute of every day and I’m not sure how I’m ever going to get over it.”
Outside the Old Bailey, Charles shared her disgust over Sacoolas’ alleged preferential treatment, while also celebrating the fact that there was even a trial and sentence.
“She should have been there, you know? We would have been. I think it’s despicable that she didn’t come over on the judge’s orders,” Charles said, in an interview posted by Sky News.
“Anne Sacoolas has a criminal record for the rest of her life. Um, that was something that, you know, they never, she never thought she’d see, the US government never thought that they’d see.
“And, we’ve worked tirelessly and relentlessly to make sure that, in the end, she still would have to do what you and I would have had to done, so yup, Harry, we’ve done it!,” she exclaimed emotionally while looking up towards the sky.
Dunn family spokesman Radd Seiger said the US had “interfered” in the British justice system, and said he was pursuing a parliamentary inquest to make sure officials never let an American only be slapped on the wrist for killing a Brit again.
“We now know that Harry was not the first person to die outside a United States Air Force base. There have been thousands of people killed or seriously injured over the decades at the hands of American drivers, and it must stop,” Seiger reportedly said outside the courthouse.
“Our real enemy isn’t Anne Sacoolas, our real enemy here is the US government,” Seiger said.
Sacoolas, who was advised by US officials not to come to the UK for the trial or sentencing, did not ask for diplomatic immunity, and was “deeply sorry for the pain” she caused, her lawyer Ben Cooper told the court.
“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about Harry,” Sacoolas’ statement continued.
With Post wires
