Harry Dunn’s parents hit out as Government seeks costs after they took legal action against Dominic Raab for granting US diplomat’s wife immunity following fatal hit-and-run crash
- Harry Dunn, 19, died in August when Anne Sacoolas crashed into his motorbike
- Sacoolas was granted diplomatic immunity and she then fled the UK
- Parents say they are going to take legal action against the British government
- Foreign Office has said they must seek legal costs to protect taxpayer’s money
The parents of a teenager who died when his motorbike was hit by a car driven by the wife of a US intelligence official are ‘livid’ that the Government is seeking legal costs against them.
Harry Dunn, 19, died in August after Anne Sacoolas crashed into his motorbike near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire. She later admitted she was driving on the wrong side of the road.
Harry’s grieving parents are taking legal action against Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, accusing him of misusing or abusing his power by granting the 42-year-old diplomatic immunity, after which she left the country.
Harry Dunn (pictured), 19, was killed in August after Anne Sacoolas crashed into his motorbike near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire. Sacoolas, who is the wife of an American intelligence officer, is believed to have been driving on the wrong side of the road when she hit the 19-year-old
Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, Harry’s parents, are pictured on This Morning in October earlier this year. They are seeking legal action against the Foreign Office for granting Sacoolas diplomatic immunity
Yesterday Mr Raab said that while the move to seek legal costs against the family ‘pains’ him, the Foreign Office had a duty to the taxpayer.
‘The representative of the family is suing the Foreign Office and they’ve talked about a litigation strategy in the US as well,’ he told Sky News.
‘They’re crowdfunding for that purpose and we just cannot responsibly allow ourselves to be sued without taking the normal action in defending ourselves when the position that the representative and the family are pursuing in law is wrong.
‘It pains me because I want to give them the solace of justice in this case. But we also need to protect the taxpayers’ money and the legal position that we set out, which is the correct one. It’s very difficult, but that’s the position that we’re in.’
Mr Raab insisted that as a father, his ‘heart goes out’ to Harry’s parents. He said his department was ‘doing everything it can’ to support police and prosecutors in obtaining justice for the teenager.
British Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, is pictured today during a Foreign Affairs ministers’ summit in Brussels. Yesterday Mr Raab said that while the move to seek legal costs against the family ‘pains’ him, the Foreign Office had a duty to the taxpayer
Anne Sacoolas, who has been hiding on a base in America, last week met with detectives from Northamptonshire in the US about the death of Harry Dunn who have handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service
The teenager was killed when his motorbike crashed into a car driven by US diplomat’s wife Anne Sacoolas, 42, outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire (pictured) on August 27
But Radd Seiger, a spokesman for Harry’s parents, said they were ‘livid’.
‘They are not engaged in some frivolous vexatious litigation frolic of their own against the [Foreign Office],’ he added. ‘Quite the opposite. They are British citizens who have had their entitlement to justice robbed from them by the US government under the watch of Mr Raab and the Foreign Office. He knows perfectly well that Mrs Sacoolas never had diplomatic immunity. The parents are entitled to answers and the truth.
‘If he is so concerned about taxpayers’ money in the litigation, then he would come and talk to us to find a resolution.’
It is understood to be government practice to seek costs in legal cases of this type.