Anne Sacoolas has been requested by a judge to appear in person for sentencing before a UK court after she pleaded guilty to causing the death of the British teenager Harry Dunn by careless driving via a video link from the US.
The plea – which was entered after she pleaded not guilty to another, more serious, charge of causing death by dangerous driving – had been accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) after consultation with Dunn’s family, the Old Bailey was told.
Sacoolas, 45, killed the 19-year-old in a road crash outside the US military base RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on 27 August 2019. The American citizen then had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US administration and left the UK after Dunn’s death, prompting a three-year campaign to have the case brought to court.
The plea was greeted with relief by Dunn’s family, who said afterwards that “of course” they wanted Sacoolas to return to the UK, where she had been living with her husband, an intelligence officer at the Northamptonshire airbase.
But the family, who have demanded to know whether the UK was told Sacoolas was an alleged former CIA officer, also said they would be continuing to seek a public inquiry into the involvement of the Foreign Office, ministers and authorities who had allowed her to leave the country.
Mrs Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb told Sacoolas at the end of a brief hearing at the Old Bailey that there was nothing to stop her from attending a sentencing hearing during the week commencing on 28 November.
“The personal attendance and voluntary surrender to the court of Mrs Sacoolas would provide weighty evidence indeed of genuine remorse,” said the judge, who added that the offence carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment, although she noted the range of sentencing guidelines is from a medium-sized community order to three years’ custody.
Sitting beside her lawyer, Sacoolas spoke at the outset of the hearing, which was watched at the Old Bailey by about 20 members of Dunn’s family, to identify herself and replied “guilty” to the charge of causing death by careless driving, although momentarily had to correct herself when she initially answered “not guilty” by mistake.
Duncan Atkinson KC, for the CPS, said the prosecution accepted the plea of count two and did not seek to proceed to trial on the first count of causing death by dangerous driving, having consulted with the Dunn family.
Cheema-Grubb said Sacoolas was a convicted offender and any consideration of the interests of justice must include the ability to enforce any sentence and ancillary order imposed.
But she added: “It is agreed that any sentence I pass is unlikely to be enforceable while the defendant remains outside of the United Kingdom. There is no order I can make to compel her appearance at the central criminal court for sentence. At the same time there is no barrier whatsoever to prevent her travelling to the UK for sentence.”
Speaking outside the Old Bailey afterwards, Harry Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, wiped away tears as she said that the promise she had made to her son to seek justice was now achieved.
“That promise was made the night he was killed. It’s done. I’m done. I’m just going to stand aside now and let the courts do their thing. It’s been a long three years,” she said.
Asked about what the family would do next, she replied: “It’s a great day. We’ve got justice for Harry today. I’ve not kept it a secret how I feel about how the government’s handled of this. I just hope that questions are answered at some point.
“We have a lot more questions than we do, answers, at the moment. For now, this part of our campaign is done, but watch this space.”
