Shropshire Star

Harry Dunn’s mother issues ‘help me’ plea to incoming president Joe Biden

Mrs Charles said her family had ‘not been able to start to rebuild our lives’ in her plea to Mr Biden.

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Harry Dunn

The mother of killed teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn has issued a “help me” plea to incoming US president Joe Biden ahead of his inauguration.

Charlotte Charles said her family had “not been able to start to rebuild our lives” – describing every day as “excruciatingly painful”.

The 46-year-old urged Mr Biden not to be afraid to “reverse the decision Mr Trump made by refusing Anne Sacoolas’s extradition to the UK”.

Mr Dunn, 19, was killed when his motorbike crashed into a car outside US military base RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in August 2019.

Sacoolas, 43, the wife of an intelligence officer working at the base, had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US Government and was able to return to her home country.

She was charged with causing death by dangerous driving in December 2019 but an extradition request submitted by the Home Office was rejected by the US State Department a month later.

The Dunn family have since appealed a High Court ruling on the immunity asserted on behalf of Sacoolas.

Issuing an appeal to Mr Biden – who defeated President Donald Trump in November’s election – on Monday, Mrs Charles said: “I need your help. My family need your help.

Harry Dunn death
Charlotte Charles issued a plea to Mr Biden on Monday (Ben Birchall/PA)

“We’ve been living without Harry now for 16-17 months and we’ve not been able to start to rebuild our lives.

“We literally still do not know where to start. Every day is still excruciatingly painful.

“As you’ve been talking about recently, your country as well as ours is all about upholding the rule of law and to be decent.

“For anyone that has done anything wrong to be held accountable and you quite rightly said absolutely nobody is above the law.

“They are my values too, they are my country’s values.”

Mrs Charles and her family hope Mr Biden will take a different stance to the previous administration, who insisted the decision not to extradite Sacoolas was “final”.

Britain’s future foreign policy
The Dunn family hope Mr Biden will take a different approach to the previous administration (Niall Carson/PA)

She continued: “May I please, please ask you, as soon as you possibly can, and amongst everything else that I totally understand you have to do, to review the case of my son Harry Dunn.

“Please don’t be afraid to reverse the decision Mr Trump made by refusing Anne Sacoolas’s extradition to the UK.

“Please take a look at all of it. She’s not above the law – nobody should be, as you said.

“We’re not out to cause anybody harm, we are not vengeful people, we are a very regular family – I just miss my son.

“Due to us not having our justice yet, we haven’t even had our inquest. I still haven’t been able to piece together the last two to three hours of my son’s life.

“I deserve more than that. The rest of us parents deserve more than that. And Harry certainly deserves his justice.”

Concluding her message to Mr Biden, Mrs Charles added: “He was just coming into his own. He was 19 and doing nothing wrong.

“He was just riding his motorbike which was just the most wonderful, enjoyable pastime he had. It was his passion.

“He was just out enjoying his passion. He had done nothing wrong. He was on the correct side of the road.

“Please President Biden, help me to start to rebuild my life.

“Please send Anne Sacoolas back to the UK to face our justice system.”

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