Harry Dunn: US driver will not attend sentencing in person

Published

1 day ago

Harry Dunn died following a collision outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in 2019

A woman who killed a motorcyclist will not attend a sentencing hearing in person after advice from her employer, the United States government.

Anne Sacoolas, 45, admitted causing the death of Harry Dunn, 19, by careless driving via video-link at the Old Bailey in October.

She had been urged by judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb to return to the UK to face justice on Thursday.

But a renewed application for her to appear via video-link has been granted.

Sacoolas, a US citizen, was driving on the wrong side of the road near RAF Croughton, a US air base in Northamptonshire, when she crashed her Volvo and killed the motorcyclist in August 2019.

She had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US administration following the collision, and left the UK 19 days later.

The US government advised Sacoolas not to attend her sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey on Thursday.

Justice for Harry Dunn three years after death

US citizen admits causing Harry Dunn crash death

Confirming a renewed application for her to appear via video-link had been granted, an Old Bailey spokesman said: "The application made jointly by the prosecution and defence for Mrs Sacoolas to participate and be sentenced by live link, has been renewed.

"The defence have supplied material in support of the application including evidence that Mrs Sacoolas' government employer has advised her not to attend in person.

"The judge has granted the application."

Charlotte Charles, Radd Seiger and Tim Dunn (left to right) campaigned for the case to go to court

Radd Seiger, spokesman for the Dunn family, said they were "horrified to learn that the United States government is now actively interfering in our criminal justice system".

"Harry's family are victims of a serious crime and they have been kept in the dark completely about what is to come at Thursday's hearing since Mrs Sacoolas's guilty plea," he said.

"Their ongoing cruel treatment of Harry's parents is nothing short of inhumane and it continues to take a heavy toll on their mental health.

"If there is a genuine reason why Mrs Sacoolas should not appear in court on Thursday, as directed by the judge, then the parents would happily accept that.

"But, on the face of it, it appears that this is nothing short of a cowardly act on the part of an oppressor."

Mr Seiger said he had asked for an urgent meeting with the Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to understand what action the British government would take.

Sacoolas has attended both previous court hearings via video-link from her lawyer's offices in Washington DC.

Adjourning sentencing at the previous hearing, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told Sacoolas that although she could not compel her to face justice in person, it would provide "weighty evidence" of "genuine remorse".

After a plea was entered, Mr Dunn's mother Charlotte Charles said "of course" she wants Sacoolas to return to the UK to be sentenced.

The US State Department and Sacoolas's representatives have been contacted for comment.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-63871733

>>17902338

RAF Croughton base 'sent secrets from Merkel’s phone straight to the CIA'

Communications hub plays key role in relaying embassy based spying

Tuesday 05 November 2013 21:53

Data from the global network of US embassy spy posts implicated in the eavesdropping on Angela Merkel’s mobile phone is funnelled back to Washington through a secret hub in Northamptonshire,

Vast quantities of information captured by America’s “Stateroom” system of listening stations in diplomatic missions – including phone calls and data sent over wi-fi links – are routed back to spy chiefs via a communications hub within the US Air Force base in Croughton, near Milton Keynes.

The facility at RAF Croughton has been identified as a relay centre for CIA clandestine and agent communications. It has also now been named in documents leaked by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden as playing a key support role in embassy-based spying.

Documents seen by The Independent name the base as one of two centres for “tech support activity” by the Special Collection Service (SCS) – the joint CIA/NSA unit which runs the network of about 100 listening posts operated in parallel with an identical British scheme overseen by GCHQ.

An SCS intelligence “nest” on top of the US embassy in Berlin appears abruptly to have been shut down last week following the revelation that the NSA had targeted Mrs Merkel’s mobile and the subsequent diplomatic row over Washington’s surveillance in Germany. The rooftop US spying site lies less than 150 metres from a cylinder on the British embassy which is at the centre of concerns that Britain may also have been eavesdropping on communications in the German capital.

The Snowden documents and other US reports imply that any material gathered from the US embassy in Berlin would have been relayed back to SCS headquarters at the joint CIA/NSA facility in College Park, Maryland, via the secure facility at Croughton.

The siting of such a critical installation on British soil underlines the close integration of British and American intelligence activities.

Although GCHQ and the NSA are known to share the results of embassy interception, RAF Croughton also has a direct link to GCHQ’s Cheltenham headquarters which has been operating for more than 20 years. Under the legal framework for US military bases in Britain, each facility is under the supervision of a British military commander who must ensure that UK law is not breached. The Ministry of Defence last night declined to comment on the role played by the SCS relay station at RAF Croughton.

The Northamptonshire base is home to the 422nd Air Base Group, whose role includes processing at least a quarter of all US military communications in Europe. The base, which was originally used by the Americans in the 1950s to relay nuclear bomber communications, hit the headlines earlier this year when it emerged that British Telecom won a contract to supply a secure fibre-optic link between RAF Croughton and a US air base in Djibouti used to co-ordinate drone strikes over Yemen. The £14m contract raised suspicions that it could be used to relay instructions for drone attacks. The MoD insisted that USAF staff at RAF Croughton “neither fly nor control” any remotely piloted aircraft.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-raf-croughton-base-sent-secrets-from-merkel-s-phone-straight-to-the-cia-8923401.html

>>17902348

>>17902338

'Henchmen' Trump aides were 'snarling' at grieving Dunn family, according to spokesman

https://youtu.be/GQxbUxBPUDo