Driver in Fatal Harry Dunn Crash "Could and Should Have Been Arrested"
Anne Sacoolas struck Harry Dunn while she was driving on the incorrect side of the road in 2019
An inquiry has found serious failings by police and the Home Office in the case of teenage motorcyclist, Harry Dunn.
Harry Dunn was 19 when he was killed in 2019 by the American national Anne Sacoolas. Sacoolas was exiting the RAF Croughton airbase when she began driving on the incorrect side of the road. After colliding with and killing Harry, Sacoolas fled the country (despite telling authorities that she wouldn’t) under the veil of diplomatic immunity.
This week, a 118 report into the handling of the crash has made 38 recommendations about the police handling of the case, including in the immediate aftermath of the crash. One of the most stunning findings of the report, which was commissioned by Chief Constable Ivan Balhatchet and written by Karl Whiffen, was that Sacoolas wasn’t arrested at the scene of the crash (due to here being in an apparent state of shock) when actually she "could and should have been arrested". Had that happened, she would not have been able to flee the country on a US Air Force flight and would have been forced to face the courts.
Instead of that happening, Sacoolas used diplomatic immunity rules to leave the country, although she did eventually plead guilty to causing death by careless driving, albeit via video link at the Old Bailey in December 2022. As a result of this, she was handed an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.
Other failings highlighted by the report are a lack of testing after the crash. While Harry, despite being deceased, was subjected to substance testing (for alcohol and drugs), Sacoolas, who had already been overheard admitting to driving on the incorrect side of the road and being at fault, was not. It also found that none of the officers at the scene managed to gather body-worn camera evidence - one officer is reported to have tried, although failed to get the footage.
The former Northamptonshire Chief Constable, Nick Adderley, was also singled out for criticism, primarily for making incorrect statements about the investigation, as well as for the criticism he directed at the Dunn family spokesperson, Radd Seiger. Adderley was sacked from his role as chief constable within the Northants force in June last year after a misconduct investigation found that he had lied about his naval career and misrepresented his military service.
Speaking about the findings of the report, Assistant Chief Constable, Emma James said:
"First and foremost, on behalf of Northamptonshire Police, I want to apologise to Harry's family for what is now clear was a failure on our part to do the very best for the victim in this case.
"The picture which emerges is one of a force which has failed the family on a number of fronts, and we hope the findings, which are troubling in several respects, will provide some answers to questions which the family will have wanted to know in the years that have passed."
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
