‘Have a nice day’ – these were the only words of comfort the ‘cowardly’ US diplomat responsible for the death of teenager Harry Dunn had for his heartbroken family.
US citizen Anne Sacoolas, 45, was yesterday sentenced at the Old Bailey to eight months in prison suspended for 12 months for causing the death of Mr Dunn on August 27, 2019.
Following the crash outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire, Harry was flung from his motorcycle as Sacoolas’ Volvo XC90 burst into flames. He later died in hospital.
But Sacoolas failed to appear at the Old Bailey to be sentenced yesterday, instead taking the advice of a government employer not to attend court.
Now footage has emerged of the moment former CIA operative Sacoolas was filmed scurrying away from a reporter as she refused to answer why she didn’t attend her court hearing on Wednesday.
Cowardly: Anne Sacoolas was sentenced at the Old Bailey to eight months suspended for causing the death of Harry Dunn. Now footage has emerged of the 45-year-old scurrying away from a reporter in America
Sacoolas, pictured right, did not answer a single one of the questions by Sky’s US correspondent James Matthews, pictured right
Sacoolas refused to answer any questions following the sentencing when approached by a reporter and instead rushing into a lift saying: ‘Have a nice day’
Harry Dunn, 19, died in August 2019, when he was struck by a car driven by US diplomat’s wife Anne Sacoolas outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire
Asked by a Sky New reporter James Matthews ‘what words do you have for Harry Dunn’s family today?’, Sacoolas simply replied: ‘Have a nice day.’
‘Have you compounded their grief by delaying justice for three years?’ continues the reporter as Sacoolas, wearing a navy blue baseball cap, face mask and white shirt, remains silent and waits for a lift.
Then an aide walking with the convicted criminal attempts to block Sky’s camera from filming, placing a folder up in front of it.
‘Why didn’t you go to attend court in the UK,’ continues Mr Matthews, who is Sky’s US correspondent. Sacoolas then scurries into a lift, saying ‘thank you’.
Another woman then tells the Sky News team: ‘You are not getting in this elevator.’
Continuing with his questioning, Mr Matthews asks: ‘Mrs Sacoolas, why did the Harry Dunn family have to wait for three years to see you receive justice today? What words do you have for Harry Dunn’s family?’
Harry Dunn’s stepfather Bruce Charles and mother Charlotte Charles speak to media after the sentencing of Anne Sacoolas
The family of Harry Dunn (left to right) mother Charlotte Charles, stepfather Bruce Charles, stepmother Tracey Dunn, father Tim Dunn and family advisor Radd Seiger, pictured arriving at the Old Bailey this afternoon for the sentencing of Anne Sacoolas
Mr Dunn’s killer, 45, refuses to answer the question and is seen frantically pressing buttons inside the lift before a male aide steps in to help.
The footage will come as a major blow to Mr Dunn’s family, who were yesterday furious at the American’s decision not to appear in person at the Old Bailey.
Speaking to reporters outside the Old Bailey, Harry’s mother Charlotte Charles blasted her son’s killer.
She said: ‘She should have been there. I think it’s despicable that she didn’t come over on the judge’s orders. Huge coward.’
Meanwhile, Sacoolas refused to answer any questions following the sentencing.
Approached by a Sky News reporter, she was asked: ‘What words do you have for Harry Dunn’s family?’
She replied: ‘Have a nice day.’
Earlier, speaking after the sentencing, Ms Charles also said: ‘Job done, promise complete. Properly, properly complete now. Anne Sacoolas now has a criminal record. Yep, Harry, we’ve done it.
‘We would have been happy with anything – for us, it was just about doing the right thing.’
And asked if she would meet Sacoolas, Ms Charles said: ‘Too much too late now.’
She also accused British authorities of having ‘let us down’ badly following the death of her son.
She told Sky News that the US are ‘not my favourite and they are never going to be’, adding that ‘the UK really let us down badly in the beginning’.
Ms Charles continued: ‘They are starting to come good, I think. But I think I need to reserve judgement for now.’
Family spokesman Radd Seiger also said: ‘Our real enemy here isn’t Anne Sacoolas, our real enemy here is the US government, who after Harry’s death decided instead of doing the right thing for the family, decided to kick them in the stomach.’
He described the case as ‘one of the most extraordinary legal cases in English history’, adding that he was in awe of Harry’s parents for their persistent campaigning.
Mr Seiger went on: Today is the end of the criminal phase and again the suggestion at the time was that this family was never going to get justice and that was never going to happen.
‘So, today is victory day. We can close this off now, and she has a very serious sentence.
‘Today is about thinking about Harry, and today is about thinking about the parents. They are heroes in my view. But we now move forward to the next phase of our campaign.
‘The parents want to leave a legacy for Harry, which is that this will never happen again.’
It came after the court heard that Harry begged a bystander ‘don’t let me die’ after he was knocked off his motorbike by the American diplomat driving on the wrong side of the road.
Sacoolas had earlier admitted causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving, but she was advised by her government employer not to attend her sentencing hearing today.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb revealed she received a ‘barrier’ from the US Government refusing to allow Mrs Sacoolas’ attendance to face justice.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he hoped the judgment ‘provides some closure’ to Harry Dunn’s family and said ‘important lessons’ had been learned from the case.
Today, Sacoolas appeared to wipe a tear as she listened to a harrowing statement from Dunn’s mother at her sentencing hearing in Court One of the Old Bailey before Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb.
The mother told the court she was left ‘absolutely fuming’ on learning the US government had advised her not to travel to the UK to face justice, making the sentence effectively unenforceable.
Speaking in a packed Court One, Mrs Charles wept as she said: ‘Harry just disappeared out of my life that night, shattering my existence forever.
‘His passing haunts me every minute of every day and I’m not sure how I’m ever going to get over it.’
‘I made a promise to Harry in the hospital that we would get him justice and a mother never breaks a promise to her son.’
Passing sentence, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: ‘A request for your extradition was submitted in 2020, it was denied.
‘There is no doubt that the calm and dignified persistence of these parents and family of that young man has led through three years of heartbreak and effort to your appearance before this court and acknowledge your guilt.’
Opening the facts, Duncan Atkinson KC told how Mr Dunn was fatally injured at about 8.20pm on August 27 2019 when his Kawaski motorbike crashed with Sacoolas’s Volvo.
At the time of the collision, Sacoolas was driving two of her children home from a barbeque at Croughton US Air Base.
Mr Dunn had spent the afternoon with his best friend, Robert Hill, and was on his way home on his motorbike.
Mr Atkinson said: ‘He was described as being his normal self, happy and joking.’
There was an ‘explosion and fire’ following the collision, in which Mrs Sacoolas was on the wrong side of the road.
‘Harry Dunn was thrown on the front of the Volvo, then over the vehicle … striking the rear window before coming to rest behind it.
‘(The Volvo’s) rear window had been smashed and its airbags had been activated. The motorbike itself had extensive fire damage.’
The collision happened on the B4031, a two-carriageway road, between Croughton village and Croughton US Air Base in Northamptonshire, with a 40mph speed limit.
