Harry Dunn: US diplomat’s wife wants to meet with killed teenager’s parents to express ‘deepest sympathies’

Home secretary says suspect appears to want to ‘start cooperating’ with investigation

The US diplomat’s wife allegedly involved in a crash that killed 19-year-old Harry Dunn has said she wants to meet his parents to “express her deepest sympathies” over the teenager’s death.

Harry’s parents are travelling to the US after the Foreign Office announced yesterday that the suspect, Anne Sacoolas, does not have diplomatic immunity in the case.

Lawyers for Ms Sacoolas said she is “devastated” by the accident but insisted she had “fully cooperated” with the investigation.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, would not say on Sunday morning if Ms Sacoolas should be extradited to the UK over the road accident.

“It very much seems that the lady in question wants to start cooperating with the discussions and the investigations, and I think that we should support that,” Ms Patel told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

She added: “We need to ensure that justice is done but obviously that cooperation with this investigation takes place.”

Although the parents have said they are open to meeting Ms Sacoolas, Harry’s mother, Charlotte Charles, told Sky News an apology is “not enough”.

“My opinion on Anne Sacoolas now wanting to come forward and say sorry – to be perfectly honest – yes, it’s the start of some closure for our family,” Ms Charles said.

“Having said that, as it’s nearly seven weeks now since we lost our boy, sorry just doesn’t cut it.”

Harry, who was 19 years old, died after his motorbike collided with a car near an RAF base in Northamptonshire on 27 August.

Ms Sacoolas is accused of driving the car and then leaving the country after becoming a suspect in the investigation of the collision.

As the wife of a US diplomat, she was able to claim diplomatic immunity.

Senior figures in the UK government, including the prime minister Boris Johnson, have called on the US to waive her immunity but the Trump administration had been resistant to those requests.

In a letter to Harry’s parents released on Saturday, Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said immunity was “no longer relevant in Mrs Sacoolas’s case because she has returned home.”

“The US have now informed us that they too consider that immunity is no longer pertinent,” Mr Raab added.

Mark Stephens, a lawyer representing the Dunn family, said Ms Sacoolas was “very ill-advised” to have left the UK after the crash.