US driver in Harry Dunn crash to give evidence remotely

An American driver who killed a teenage motorcyclist is to give evidence at his inquest remotely.

Harry Dunn died in 2019 when a car driven by Anne Sacoolas collided with his motorcycle outside the American airbase at RAF Croughton.

A pre-inquest review hearing has been held at Northampton's Guildhall.

Ms Sacoolas's lawyer told the coroner that his client is "keen to assist" the inquest, which is expected to resume next June.

Harry Dunn, who was 19 and from the village of Charlton in Northamptonshire, was on his way home from work when the crash happened outside RAF Croughton, Northamptonshire, on 27 August 2019.

Ms Sacoolas had just left the airbase and was driving on the wrong side of the road when her car hit Mr Dunn's motorbike.

The US State Department asserted diplomatic immunity on behalf of Sacoolas and she was able to leave the UK 19 days after the fatal collision.

She pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving and appeared by video link for a sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey in 2022 where she was given eight months in prison, suspended for a year.

At the pre-inquest review hearing, the coroner Anne Pember raised the issue of whether Anne Sacoolas would be attending the hearing in person.

Plans are now reported to be in place for her to take part via a video link from the US.

The family's spokesman, Radd Seiger, told PA News that Mr Dunn's parents are still hopeful that she will appear in person for the full inquest as criminal proceedings have now concluded.

The hearing was told Sacoolas had told police she had received "little or no" driving training during her short time in the UK.

Patrick Gibbs KC, the barrister representing Mr Dunn's family, criticised the "vacuum of information that surrounds all things American" - saying the US State Department "must have had" the answers the family had been looking for and had "just chosen not to give them".

Mrs Pember said she will contact the Foreign Office to see what information the US government can provide in relation to Mr Dunn's death.

She said that if Sacoolas was employed by the US State Department at the time of the crash, she would name the department as an "interested person" in the inquest.

Sacoolas's lawyer, Ben Cooper KC, said the US citizen was "keen to assist the inquest".

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