PM to appeal to Donald Trump if Anne Sacoolas fails to return to UK over fatal traffic collision

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Boris Johnson will personally appeal to Donald Trump if the US continues to refuse to lift the diplomatic immunity it has granted to a US diplomat’s wife who is accused of killing a 19-year-old motorcyclist in a traffic collision.

Anne Sacoolas, who is married to a US communications official, left the UK last month, prompting widespread anger in Britain over the use of diplomatic immunity to flee potential charges of causing death by dangerous driving.

Amid signs that No 10 has been caught off-guard by the level of public outrage, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, raised the case in a telephone call with the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. A spokesman said Raab “reiterated his disappointment” with the US decision not to waive immunity and urged them to reconsider.

No 10 said that if Pompeo was not persuaded to take action, then the prime minister would himself raise the issue directly with Trump.

How does diplomatic immunity work? Read more

Sacoolas left the UK along with her husband Jonathan at the beginning of last month, days after Harry Dunn was killed in a head-on collision with a car that police believe had been driving on the wrong side of the road for 400 yards.

In a sign that the US will resist appeals for the return of Sacoolas, the US embassy said the family left the UK on the advice of senior state department officials, adding that diplomatic immunity is rarely waived in such instances.

Such cases receive “intense attention at senior levels and are considered carefully given the global impact such decisions carry”, the US Department of State said.

The US embassy has expressed its profound sadness at the death, but has refused to comment on how London and Washington interacted when the US first ruled that the Sacoolas family were entitled to claim diplomatic immunity to leave the UK, and so stymie further UK police inquiries.

The Foreign Office, probably sensing the grounds for protest were limited by international law, made no public objection to Sacoolas’s departure and only began to make its concerns public when the family of Dunn demanded answers in the media.

The episode raises fresh questions about whether diplomatic immunity is routinely abused to provide improper blanket protection for diplomats and their families, so they can evade justice in cases where they have committed illegal acts that have no connection with their professional life.

Chris Daw QC, a barrister, said: “If the US government allows diplomatic immunity (for a spouse, not even a diplomat) to frustrate a serious British criminal investigation, they are no better than the Russians over Salisbury.”

Dunn died after a collision with a Volvo XC90 near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on 27 August. It is alleged the Volvo driver went 400 yards down the wrong side of the road after pulling out of the airbase. The Sacoolas family had only been in the UK for three weeks.

Dunn sustained multiple injuries and was taken to John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, where he died a short time later.

Police said the suspect “engaged fully” with them at the time and confirmed “that she had no plans to leave the country in the near future”.

Northamptonshire police disclosed only on Saturday that Sacoolas had left the UK despite previously telling officers she intended to remain in the UK. Causing death by careless driving can lead to a custodial offence.

The Croughton airbase acts as a joint intelligence analysis centre. In early 1994 the US and UK governments struck a deal that all those working in RAF Croughton including their families would have diplomatic protection. That deal probably gave Sacoolas the cover to claim immunity.

Pressed on the controversy on Monday, Johnson said: “I do not think it can be right to use the process of diplomatic immunity for this type of purpose.”

Play Video 0:58 Harry Dunn's parents call for diplomat's wife to face justice over son's death – video

Speaking to reporters during a visit to a hospital in Watford, he added: “I think everybody’s sympathies are very much with the family of Harry Dunn and our condolences to them for their tragic loss.”

The prime minister added that he hoped Sacoolas would come back and “engage properly with the processes of law as they are carried out in this country.

“That’s a point that we’ve raised or are raising today with the American ambassador here in the UK and I hope it will be resolved very shortly.”

The prime minister’s official spokesman said discussions about the case had already been held between Raab and the US ambassador, Woody Johnson, and the details were “extremely concerning”.

Dunn’s parents said they were prepared to travel to Washington to meet Donald Trump about waiving Sacoolas’s diplomatic immunity.

Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, said if the diplomatic waiver was declined then funds raised by friends and family would be used to travel to try to see the president. Charles said it was a “dishonourable thing to do” for Sacoolas to leave the UK while she remained a suspect.

She told CBS: “She killed our boy. If it wasn’t for her being under this suppose diplomatic immunity, it would have been a clear cut case we’d have had justice by now.”

Charles also said she wanted to speak to Sacoolas “as a mum”, telling the Daily Mail: “All we need to do is ask her to come back. It’s not much to ask. She’s left a family in complete ruin. We’re broken.”

Andrea Leadsom, the business secretary and the MP for South Northamptonshire, tweeted in response to Charles’s comments : “I met Harry’s family yesterday. They are totally heartbroken. We have to get proper justice for Harry and closure for his family.”

Nick Adderley, the chief constable of Northamptonshire police, said US authorities had been appealed to in “the strongest terms” to apply a waiver and “allow the justice process to take place”.

Adderley confirmed he and Stephen Mold, the police, fire and crime commissioner for Northamptonshire, had contacted the embassy asking for immunity to be waived.

Mold told the Times the US decision not to waive immunity was “a breaking of trust, almost a betrayal” of the special relationship.

Dunn’s father, Tim Dunn, said the family wanted to get to the truth in order to move forward. He added: “We can’t grieve for him at the minute, we are unaware where we are going.”

Charles said they learned that Sacoolas had left the UK after their son’s funeral.

She said her son “was part of the gel that put us together. Now we are just broken inside and out. Everything hurts every day. We know we can’t bring him back but we need to do so.”