Harry Dunn’s mother accuses Dominic Raab of using a bankruptcy threat to stop search for the truth

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Harry Dunn’s mother accuses Dominic Raab of using a bankruptcy threat to stop search for the truth: Family face financial ruin in court battle over the US spy in death crash outside RAF base

  • Harry Dunn died after former US spy Anne Sacoolas crashed into him last August
  • The Foreign Office have warned the Dunn’s they will pursue them for legal costs 
  • The family say that they are risking financial ruin by challenging the government 

By Harry Cole Deputy Political Editor For The Mail On Sunday

Published: | Updated:

The mother of Harry Dunn has accused Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab of ‘effectively blackmailing’ her into dropping a High Court quest for the truth about her son’s death – with the threat of bankruptcy.

Harry, 19, died after former US spy Anne Sacoolas crashed into him as he rode his motorbike outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire last August.

The Foreign Office (FCO) has warned his family they will pursue them for legal costs if they try to overturn the Government’s decision to grant Sacoolas diplomatic immunity after the crash.

Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, and his family want the courts to render unlawful advice given by the FCO to Northamptonshire Police in the wake of the crash that insisted Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity as the spouse of a diplomat.

But Harry’s family say they risk financial ruin if their legal bid is unsuccessful and have today made a public appeal to ‘crowdfund’ their judicial review attempt against the Foreign Secretary that will be heard in the High Court in May.

Harry Dunn’s family are trying to overturn the decision to grant Anna Sacoolas diplomatic immunity

They have hired leading human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC and his team to fight on their behalf. The Government has instructed leading silk Sir James Eadie QC to quash the action, risking costs of more than £100,000.

The astonishing ‘blackmail’ blast comes as the The Mail on Sunday can reveal for the first time the secret treaty drawn up in 1995 between Britain and the United States that Mr Raab admitted to MPs was an ‘anomaly’, yet puts Mrs Sacoolas above the law.

The treaty, a secret exchange of letters between FCO Ministers and US diplomats never before seen or scrutinised by Parliament, states that ‘immunity from criminal jurisdiction’ was not to be granted to employees at RAF Croughton – a secret US listening station. 

The US government claimed Sacoolas’s husband worked at the facility, so while he would have not had diplomatic immunity for the crash under this treaty, his spouse and families would because they are not mentioned in it.

Harry's family say they risk financial ruin if their legal bid is unsuccessful and have today made a public appeal to 'crowdfund' their judicial review attempt against the Foreign Secretary

Harry’s family say they risk financial ruin if their legal bid is unsuccessful and have today made a public appeal to ‘crowdfund’ their judicial review attempt against the Foreign Secretary

Anne Sacoolas filmed by ITV News behind the wheel in the US

Anne Sacoolas filmed by ITV News behind the wheel in the US

Leading lawyers question this interpretation of the treaty and Mr Raab admitted to MPs in October last year that it had never been tested by a judge. 

Botched treaty that allowed the Americans to exploit a loophole 

An exchange of diplomatic pleasantries spanning 11 months and sent 26 years ago set in motion one of the most significant rifts between the US and Britain in modern times.

The three short notes between the then US ambassador to the UK, William J Crowe Jr, and British Minister Sir Nicholas Cosmo Bonsor also offer an insight into how the so-called Special Relationship really works. Aristocratic Old Etonian barrister Bonsor had a short-lived career as a Foreign Office Minister in the dying years of John Major’s government and had been tasked with dealing with the Americans.

Washington wanted 200 of its agents and officials to be granted diplomatic immunity while they were posted to US listening station RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire, and Britain was writing to acquiesce.

Only one caveat was inserted into the deal – the diplomats would not be beyond British criminal liability for anything outside their official duties at the base. In a one paragraph reply in August 1995, the US Government conceded the point that immunity was ‘waived’ for ’employees’ of the base.

Bonsor stands accused of botching the treaty as there is absolutely no mention of the spouses and families of these diplomats. And in 2001, when the US asked to deploy more staff at Croughton, the late Labour Foreign Secretary Robin Cook failed to close the loophole. 

What Dominic Raab now calls an ‘anomaly’ in the original treaty allowed Anne Sacoolas to flee the scene of the tragic death of Harry Dunn, claiming she is above the law.

Human rights barrister Adam Wagner, who has been hired by the family as part of their legal team, says it is a flaw that destroys the Americans’ and the Government’s stance. 

He said: ‘The Government’s position, that the families of diplomats have more immunities than the diplomats themselves, is absurd. Even Dominic Raab told Parliament it was an ‘anomaly’.’

Ms Charles told The Mail on Sunday: ‘After Harry died, we knew we could do nothing to turn the clock back. Our pain is unbearable. But we decided as a family to work positively to ensure that no one is killed or injured outside these bases with the suspect then fleeing. It is just wrong as the whole country now knows.’

She added: ‘Dominic Raab said the issue of diplomatic immunity had never been challenged in the UK courts. We thought we could work together with the Government to sort this mess out.

‘Instead we have been effectively blackmailed and threatened that unless we go away, they will make us bankrupt. This isn’t our fight. It is the nation’s.’

And Radd Seiger, spokesman for the wider family, added: ‘Since the night we lost Harry, the governments of the UK and the USA have treated Anne Sacoolas as though she had diplomatic immunity and we believe that they are wrong.

‘The parents want to test it for our benefit and yet the Foreign Office is doing everything within its power to not have it tested in the courts.’

One of the family’s legal team’s first goals is to have any costs they face capped by the court. They have asked the FCO to drop the pursuit of costs, but Government sources have insisted this is impossible. Mr Seiger hit out: ‘The Foreign Office is threatening to pursue the parents for their legal costs if they lose this case. We have asked and asked the Foreign Office to remove that threat and it has not responded. They are threatening Harry’s parents with bankruptcy to get them to back off. That is totally unacceptable. ‘ 

l The Harry Dunn Crowd Justice is seeking donations for the case at crowdjustice.com/case/harrydunn/