Foreign Office failed to treat Harry Dunn’s death as crisis, damning report finds

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Failures and omissions made after driver Anne Sacoolas claimed diplomatic immunity, review concludes

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The Foreign Office failed to treat as a crisis the case of a US woman who fled the country claiming diplomatic immunity after causing the death of a a British teenager in road crash, an independent review has concluded.

“Failures and omissions” were made in handling matters after the death of Harry Dunn, and opportunities to influence the US were lost, the government has been told.

David Lammy, when he was foreign secretary in July, launched a review of how the case of Anne Sacoolas – then a suspect - was dealt with.

Top UK officials told the US government they should “feel able” to put Ms Sacoolas on the next flight home following the fatal road crash.

Mr Dunn, 19, was killed when a car driven by Ms Sacoolas hit his motorcycle near the exit to RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in August 2019.

Ms Sacoolas, who was the wife of a CIA operative working near the airbase, claimed diplomatic immunity under a legal loophole unknown at the time to most politicians and police officers who first questioned her.

Dame Anne Owers, a former chief inspector of prisons, who carried out the review, highlights in her report “failings and omissions” in the department when dealing with the case including failing to recognise the family as allies in achieving justice.

It is understood Dame Anne told the Dunn family it was her “strong view” the then foreign secretary Dominic Raab should have been involved “far earlier in the process”, after his private office was copied into a note three days following the crash, expressing fears over potentially “unpalatable headlines”.

She recommends that in future, deaths involving exceptional circumstances, such as diplomatic immunity, be given an “immediate surge of resources”, with a mandatory early escalation to ministers and senior officials.

Her report makes 12 recommendations, focused on improving government responses to deaths and serious incidents and support for families and victims.

The US government at the time was considered to have been exploiting a loophole in the immunity agreement at US air base RAF Croughton, which granted dependants of administrative and technical staff immunity but not the staff themselves.

Dame Anne’s report says: “From the documentation I have seen, there is no doubt that those who were directly involved hoped and expected that the US would, as one put it, ‘do the right thing’, irrespective of any other considerations. “But there was a significant delay in recognising that this should be a priority across the department as a whole, and in escalating it to a sufficiently senior level.”

Ms Sacoolas eventually pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving via video link at the Old Bailey in December 2022 and later received an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.

In response to the review, Mr Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, said: “The report confirms what we have lived with every day for more than six years - that mistakes were made, that opportunities were missed and that our family was not treated with the honesty or urgency that any grieving parent deserves.” The report findings will be laid before Parliament. The government says it has accepted all the report recommendations in full, 10 of which relate to the foreign office, one the Ministry of Justice, and one the Crown Prosecution Service.

Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said: “We are committed to learning the lessons from this tragedy, especially on support for victims, ensuring that no family facing a crisis of this kind should have to fight for the support they rightly deserve."

Dame Anne said she recognised that a more positive government approach developed later, in building a relationship with the family and achieving significant change.

Since 2019, the government has blocked US nationals from claiming immunity from criminal prosecution.

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