US citizen admits responsibility for motorcyclist Harry Dunn's death

A US citizen has admitted responsibility for the death of Harry Dunn, who died in a road traffic collision in 2019. 

The US citizen Anne Sacoolas has admitted responsibility for the death of Harry Dunn, a motorcyclist who died at the age of 19 in 2019 when he was involved in a road traffic collision with Sacoolas.

Sacoolas admitted to causing death by careless driving today (20 October 2022) in a plea hearing which she attended from the US via a video link.

Sacoolas, 45, now faces up to five years in prison, according to the MailOnline, and the sentencing will take place in November.

Harry Dunn died following a crash outside a US military base in the UK while he was riding his motorcycle.

Dunn encountered Anne Sacoolas, who was driving out of the RAF Croughton base, while he was riding.

At the time it was said that Sacoolas had been driving on the right-hand side of the road, rather than the correct left side, when the crash happened. 

Sacoolas was afforded diplomatic immunity which was placed upon her by the US thanks to her husband’s position in a US intelligence agency.

After the application of diplomatic immunity, Anne Sacoolas and her husband left the UK and returned to the US. 

The US administrations of firstly Donald Trump and secondly Joe Biden refused to remove the diplomatic immunity from Sacoolas, whose legal team feared she would not get a fair trial were she to have returned to the UK, the BBC says. 

However, after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) authorised Northamptonshire Police to charge Sacoolas with death by dangerous driving, an undisclosed resolution between Anne Sacoolas and Harry Dunn’s parents, Tim Dunn and Charlotte Charles, was reached in September 2021. 

The CPS announced that Sacoolas would appear in a UK magistrates’ court this year last December, but there was then a delay. Finally, a law change in July 2022 allowed for Sacoolas to attend court via a video link, which is how she attended the plea hearing today, when she pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.