Fatal road traffic collision resulting in UK/US diplomatic controversy
Harry Dunn was a 19-year-old British man who died following a road traffic collision on 27 August 2019. He was riding his motorcycle near Croughton, Northamptonshire, near the exit to RAF Croughton, when a car travelling in the opposite direction and on the wrong side of the road collided with him. The car was driven by Anne Sacoolas, who was working for the United States Intelligence Community at the time of the collision; she is married to CIA employee Jonathan Sacoolas, stationed at the time at USAF listening station RAF Croughton. Sacoolas admitted that she had been driving the car on the wrong side of the road, and the police said that, based on CCTV footage, they believed that to be true. Dunn was pronounced dead at the Major Trauma Centre of John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.
The collision caused diplomatic tension between British and American officials. Sacoolas fled Britain soon after the incident and claimed diplomatic immunity with American support. On 20 October 2022 she pleaded guilty at a British court to causing the death of Harry Dunn by careless driving. On 8 December 2022, she was sentenced to eight months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and disqualified from driving for 12 months. She had not attended the sentencing in person on the advice of the US government, despite the request of the judge.
Collision.
Harry Dunn, a 19-year-old resident of Charlton near Banbury, was riding his motorcycle on the B4031 road about from the exit of RAF Croughton on the evening of 27 August 2019, when he was struck by a car. The car was driven by Anne Sacoolas, who was then a member of the United States Intelligence Community and the wife of a CIA operative working at the United States Air Force listening station at RAF Croughton. Police said they believed the car, a Volvo XC90, had been driven on the wrong side of the road from the base exit, which Sacoolas later admitted. 
Sacoolas had a previous driving infraction in the US state of Virginia in 2006 for "failing to pay full time and attention". The BBC reported that the Sacoolas family had been in Britain for three weeks prior to Dunn's death.
Call handlers for the emergency telephone call categorised Dunn's injuries as category 2, requiring ambulance attention within 40 minutes; the ambulance arrived 43 minutes after the collision. The chief executive of East Midlands Ambulance Service later said that the categorisation did not make a difference to the outcome because of a shortage of ambulance crews. Dunn was pronounced dead at the Major Trauma Centre of the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.
Investigation.
An investigation into the collision led by Nick Adderley, the chief constable of Northamptonshire Police, determined, from CCTV records, that a car had been travelling on the wrong side of the road. Sacoolas had cooperated with police at the scene of the crash and was breathalysed. She was interviewed the next day at home and the police said she had cooperated with them. She had said she was driving on the wrong side of the road when she collided with Dunn. Diplomatic immunity was mentioned during the interview, and Northamptonshire Police applied for an immunity waiver later that day.
On 14 September, Foreign Office diplomat Neil Holland texted a US official that "It's obviously not us approving of their departure", but that, since the US was not waiving immunity, "I think you should feel able to put them on the next flight out". "The Telegraph" reported that Sacoolas left the country on a 'private' flight which likely took off from the US airbase at Mildenhall.
Adderley later confirmed that the suspect was to be interviewed under caution in the United States, at her own request, explaining: "A file of evidence has been handed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) but ... that file is incomplete – you can't complete the file until you have an account from the suspect." On 31 October, police confirmed they had interviewed the suspect and passed the information to the CPS.
Following the police interview with Sacoolas, Dunn's mother told Sky News that the family were frustrated by the lack of progress and information, and objected to the decision to interview Sacoolas in the US. On 1 November the police submitted a file to the CPS, who would evaluate it for a charging decision.
Diplomatic issues.
The collision became the subject of a diplomatic dispute when Sacoolas left the country shortly after the incident and the US embassy said she had diplomatic immunity as the wife of a US agent working in the UK. According to Sky News, someone at the US embassy told Sacoolas to leave the UK. The "Washington Examiner" reported that Jonathan Sacoolas did not work for the National Security Agency, and that the Sacoolas family lived in Northern Virginia in the area of the Central Intelligence Agency Langley headquarters.
Dunn's parents were advised by two leading specialist lawyers on diplomatic immunity, Mark Stephens and Geoffrey Robertson. They advised that Anne Sacoolas was not entitled to diplomatic immunity, as her husband was not listed as a diplomat. Furthermore, they contended, diplomatic immunity no longer applied upon Sacoolas's return to her home country; therefore, it would be possible to take civil action in the US courts. The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, also stated that diplomatic immunity no longer applied. Dunn's parents decided to travel to the US to "fight for change" and seek the return of Sacoolas to the UK.
President Donald Trump's briefing notes were revealed in a photograph taken at a 10 October press conference. If asked the US line was to say that Anne Sacoolas would not return to the UK, despite the previous intervention of Raab and the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, which had included a call to the president. In response, Dunn's mother said that the position of the US was "beyond any realm of human thinking", adding "I'm just disgusted. I don't see the point in Boris Johnson talking to President Trump, or President Trump even taking a call from Boris Johnson. If he'd already made his decision that if it were to be asked and if it were to be raised, the answer was already going to be no."
Parents' meeting with Trump.
Dunn's parents visited the White House on 15 October 2019 to meet with "a senior official". To their surprise they were met by President Trump, who told them that Sacoolas was waiting "in the next room" to meet them. They and their lawyer rejected this as being too soon and something that should take place on British soil. Trump called his meeting with the Dunn family "beautiful in a certain way". He also said driving on the wrong side "happens to a lot of people" because they "go to Europe and the roads are opposite". It was later alleged that Trump had intended to pay the family compensation, but they refused it: the Dunn family's spokesman reported that the White House meeting ended with the president saying the Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, was "standing by ready to write a cheque", adding: "It was almost as if he let it slip out. When he said: 'We've got the driver [Sacoolas] here', he basically meant we're all going to have a big hug and a kiss and I'll get my treasury guy to write a cheque. That's how it was. On the day it just didn't register with me, but the more I think about those words, the more shocking it is."
Responses by parents and others.
On 15 October 2019 the Dunn family announced their intention to start a judicial review action into the advice given by the FCO to Northamptonshire Police regarding the diplomatic immunity of Anne Sacoolas and set up a CrowdJustice web page. Three days later, Dunn's parents said that they expected UK police to charge Sacoolas in connection with their son's death. On the same day it was reported that the Foreign Office had asked Northamptonshire Police to withhold informing the family of Sacoolas' flight to the US, "for a day or two". The Dunn family became aware that Anne Sacoolas had left the UK one week later, on 23 September. Subsequently, a review of the diplomatic immunity arrangements at RAF Croughton was commissioned.
Nigel Farage discussed the case with Trump by telephone, on his 1 November LBC evening talk-show. Trump said that Sacoolas had a "compelling story to tell" when he met her at the White House. Asked if there were circumstances where Sacoolas could return to the UK to face charges, Trump said: "Well, I would have to see what the final facts are ... And, I'll take a look at the final facts. She's represented by a lawyer."
On 21 November, Dunn's parents expressed their disgust with Raab, who had defended the government's decision to seek legal costs. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said there was not "any reasonably arguable ground of legal challenge" in a legal case Dunn's parents were bringing against them. On 25 November Dunn's father, together with a group of more than 50 others, were, for fire safety reasons, prevented by staff from entering a hustings attended by Raab in East Molesey Methodist Church.
Dunn's parents sought leave to bring a judicial review on 25 November, detailing the Foreign Secretary's actions over the extension of diplomatic immunity to intelligence staff and families at RAF Croughton. They stated that UK–US "secret treaties" had been disclosed but the documents did not cover immunity for family members. A FCO spokesman commented "As the Foreign Secretary set out in Parliament, the individual involved had diplomatic immunity whilst in the country under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations." The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby wrote to the US ambassador in London early in October, asking that the extradition of Anne Sacoolas should not be blocked, but had at the time not received a reply.
In December, Dunn's parents announced they were to file a civil lawsuit in Virginia, where Sacoolas lived, seeking to compel her to return to the UK. Their lawyer referenced English common law which, they asserted, allowed offences committed in one country to be the subject of charges laid in another. In January 2020, a protest meeting was held at RAF Croughton. Dunn's family said they would continue their demonstration until, "the US government agrees not to abuse their power again".
Criminal prosecution and civil litigation.
In December 2019, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that Sacoolas was to be charged with causing death by dangerous driving and that it was starting extradition proceedings against her. Sacoolas's lawyer Amy Jeffress said: "Anne will not return voluntarily to the UK to face a potential jail sentence for what was a terrible but unintentional accident", adding, "the potential 14-year sentence was not proportionate." The Dunn family later met with the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, and their MP, Andrea Leadsom, at their home. Their family spokesman said they were now "incredibly reassured this whole saga will be dealt with under the rule of law".
The following January, the Home Office formally requested the extradition of Sacoolas to face charges in the United Kingdom. The US State Department's initial response was "The use of an extradition treaty to attempt to return the spouse of a former diplomat by force would establish an extraordinarily troubling precedent" and that the request was "highly inappropriate". On 23 January US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo formally rejected the request for extradition. The family spokesman said they had taken the news "in our stride". The Home Office said the decision appeared "to be a denial of justice". Andrea Leadsom was planning to meet the US ambassador, Woody Johnson, in London on 24 January to discuss the case.
In January 2020 Northamptonshire Chief Constable Nick Adderley requested an urgent meeting with the commander of the military base after footage emerged of another vehicle on the wrong side of the road near RAF Croughton. Officers gave details of a separate crash, in October, in which a police vehicle had been struck by a car being driven on the wrong side of the road.
The "Mail on Sunday" disclosed the following month that Sacoolas was previously involved in espionage with the CIA. Following the disclosure, which was subsequently confirmed by "Sky News", and widely reported by other news outlets, Dunn's mother expressed her family's suspicions that