Harry Dunn death: Anne Sacoolas faces possible trial in absentia

The attorney general for England and Wales, Suella Braverman, is considering trying the wife of a US intelligence officer in her absence on a charge of causing the death by dangerous driving of the teenager Harry Dunn.

The 19-year-old was killed on 27 August last year when a car outside a US military base in Northamptonshire was in a collision with the motorbike he was riding.

Anne Sacoolas claimed diplomatic immunity after the crash and was able to return to her home country, sparking an international controversy.

Correspondence between the Dunn family’s MP, Andrea Leadsom, and the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, released on Tuesday revealed that the unusual legal option of a trial in Sacoolas’s absence was being examined by senior law officers.

In a letter to Leadsom, Buckland said: “I quite understand how important it must be to Harry’s family, as the anniversary of his death approaches, to achieve some sort of closure.

“The suggestions you put forward for resolving the impasse by holding a trial virtually or in absentia are as you know being considered by the attorney general, and she will respond as decisions about criminal proceedings in individual cases are a matter for her and the director of public prosecutions. My officials stand ready, however, to assist in any way they can.”

Last December Sacoolas was charged with causing death by dangerous driving but an extradition request submitted by the Home Office was rejected by the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, the following month – a decision later described by the US state department as final.

“My family and I have not been able to grieve this year without justice and closure,” Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, told PA Media.

“It is doing us real harm and I can’t believe how cruel the US government are being. We all know what their position would be if this had happened to any of their children.

“They should be in no doubt – my family and I are going nowhere until we fulfil that promise to Harry. I can see the authorities in London are doing everything they can to ensure that that is just what is going to happen but we will leave them to decide how it happens.”

After learning that a virtual trial was being considered, the family’s spokesman, Radd Seiger, added: “If the authorities decide that a British trial led by a British judge in a British court should take place with Mrs Sacoolas attending virtually, then the parents will raise no objection.

“They have never been concerned with the outcome of any criminal case. Their measured, respectful call has simply been that Mrs Sacoolas must go through it.

“The outcome is not within the control of any victim of a crime but every victim is entitled to see that the life of their lost loved one did mean something, did matter, and that they had a fair crack of the whip at justice.”

Crown court trials in absentia are rare but a landmark ruling by Lord Bingham in the House of Lords in 2002 upheld the principle that they can be conducted fairly where a defendant refuses to participate.

After the charge against Sacoolas was announced last December, her lawyer, Amy Jeffress, said: “Anne is devastated by this tragic accident and continues to extend her deepest condolences to the family.

“Anne would do whatever she could to bring Harry back. She is a mother herself and cannot imagine the pain of the loss of a child. She has cooperated fully with the investigation and accepted responsibility … This was an accident, and a criminal prosecution with a potential penalty of 14 years’ imprisonment is simply not a proportionate response.”

A government spokesperson said: “The government’s deepest sympathies remain with Harry’s family. We are doing everything we can to achieve justice and the case continues to be raised at the highest levels.”

Boris Johnson and his foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, have criticised the US for refusing to return Sacoolas to the UK. The Crown Prosecution Service will be involved in deciding the next legal steps to be taken in the case.