Undated family handout photo of Harry Dunn. The parents of the teenage motorcyclist are hoping for positive meetings with the Foreign Secretary and the chief constable of Northamptonshire Police on Tuesday.
The mother of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn has criticised the Government following reports her son’s alleged killer had served as a spy with the CIA.
Charlotte Charles told the PA news agency she and the rest of Dunn’s family were “full of anger” after hearing of Anne Sacoolas’s alleged past and asked of the British Government, “how could they do this to us?”
Mrs Charles said the fresh reports in a British newspaper took her back to the early days following her son’s death when she claims the Government “were trying to kick this all under the carpet”.
The Dunn family spokesman, Radd Seiger, has called for a public inquiry into the matter, saying Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab did not mention the suspect’s reported past as a CIA officer
herself.
PA understands the family have since written to the Foreign Office asking for an explanation as to what they knew about Sacoolas’s history with the CIA.
Mr Dunn was killed when his motorbike crashed into a car outside a US military base in Northamptonshire on August 27 last year.
Sacoolas, 42, the wife of an intelligence official based at RAF Croughton, claimed diplomatic immunity following the crash and was able to return to her home country, sparking an international controversy.
She was charged with causing Mr Dunn’s death by dangerous driving in December but US secretary of state Mike Pompeo rejected an extradition request last month after the US State Department said the request would render the invocation of diplomatic immunity a practical nullity and would set an extraordinarily troubling precedent.
Responding to the latest reports, Mrs Charles told PA: “How could they do this to us?
“We have thrown ourselves into building relationships with the Government despite the terrible way they were treating us.
“We believe in giving people a second chance. But I am livid today and my family are full of anger.”
Mrs Charles added: “How could they keep this from us? This doesn’t affect the fact that Anne Sacoolas is coming back, which she is.
“But to hear this from them shows that they have not been candid with us at all and takes us back to those terrible days when they were trying to kick this all under the carpet.
“We are determined to make sure that this never happens to another family again.
“I do not know what the Government think they are doing or why they are treating us the way they are.
“It is an absolute scandal and I know Radd is calling for a full public inquiry and an action plan from the Government.
“We will not rest until Anne Sacoolas is back and we have secured the safety of the nation in so far as so-called diplomats committing crimes here in the UK is concerned.”
Calling for a public inquiry after reports the suspect had served as a CIA officer, Mr Seiger told PA: “Something has clearly gone very badly wrong and it is no wonder that Boris Johnson has not seen it fit to meet with the parents and I.
“He is the leader of the team and has been nowhere to be seen other than making wholly inappropriate and unhelpful public comments.
“It is a disgrace that he has not met with us when even Donald Trump has.”
Mr Seiger added: “I now call for a full public inquiry into who knew what and when in Government and into the deplorable manner in which this family have been treated.
“It is high time that the nation can see with full transparency whether or not the Government prioritised the protecting the identity of the Sacoolas family over the welfare and rights of Harry’s family.
“The US Government told the FCO that they were going to remove Anne Sacoolas from the UK unless the UK had any strong objections.
“Still to this day, the family have seen no evidence that the UK did indeed raise any such objections and indeed fear that they waved her off at the airport.”
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: “Anne Sacoolas was notified to us as a spouse with no official role.”
Earlier, former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt urged the US to treat the UK like an ally and extradite Sacoolas.
He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday it is “totally and utterly unacceptable” that Sacoolas is not facing justice in the UK.
On the claim that Sacoolas might herself have been a CIA agent, Mr Hunt added: “It may have a bearing on it and I don’t know the truth of these things because I’m not foreign secretary any more, but I still think it is totally and utterly unacceptable that she is not facing justice in the UK.
“And if anyone is questioning that I think we just need to ask what would have happened if the boot had been on the other foot, if a British diplomat had been involved in a road accident in the United States where someone had died and had fled on a private plane back to the UK and was evading justice – I don’t think President Trump would stand for that for one second.
“And I would just say to the United States, I’m someone who is the strongest supporter of the special relationship, I think in a very uncertain world the democracies of the world need to stand together, but if we’re going to be in an alliance we need to treat each other like allies and that is not happening.”
