Harry Dunn's mum 'more at peace', four years on

By PA Media and Laura Devlin

BBC News, Northamptonshire

Harry Dunn’s mother has said she feels “a lot more at peace” on the fourth anniversary of his death, having fulfilled her promise to get justice.

The 19-year-old motorcyclist was hit by a car being driven on the wrong side of the road in Northamptonshire in 2019.

After “relentless” campaigning, the driver – US citizen Anne Sacoolas – was sentenced in December.

Charlotte Charles said since then her family had “started to try to figure out what life is actually about”.

“I certainly feel stronger than I did before, but we’ve still got such a long way to go,” she added.

“There’s many days where I literally won’t get out of bed, and I don’t want to see anybody and I don’t want to speak to anyone.”

After the crash, diplomatic immunity was asserted on behalf of Sacoolas by her employer, the US State Department.

She was allowed to leave the UK 19 days after the fatal collision, which happened outside RAF Croughton on 27 August.

There followed a three-and-a-half-year campaign by Harry’s family, which included a meeting with then-president Donald Trump at the White House.

Sacoolas, 45, appeared before a High Court judge at the Old Bailey via videolink in December and pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving.

She was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for 12 months.

Mrs Charles and her husband Bruce, alongside Harry’s father Tim Dunn and his partner Tracey, are marking the anniversary by visiting Portland, Dorset, where they scattered his ashes in 2020.

“Hopefully this year we can smile a lot more and remember him much happier than we could last year because everything was still hanging over us,” she said.

“Because we’re more at peace we’ll be able to smile and talk about some of the silly times that Harry gave us.”

She added that while visiting the same spot on the anniversary last year she felt she had “still failed him in some sense” but “that’s gone”.

“I can definitely sit there over the weekend, especially on Sunday and feel that I’ve done my best for him,” she said.

“So that element has definitely dissipated this time, but the pain is still there.

“We’re still very much learning to live without him.”

Reflecting on her part in the campaign, Mrs Charles said: “I’ve still got no idea where any of us found the strength from.

“I’ve no idea how we kept going, but relentless and tiring doesn’t even touch it, so it’s only again now that you feel a little bit more vibrant.

“I think we are still getting over the three-and-a-half years of being constantly on the go.”

Asked whether she would have changed anything about the campaign, Mrs Charles replied: “There’s absolutely no way that I’d have done anything differently.

“There’s nothing that I feel ashamed about. There’s nothing that I feel we could have done better.”

She admitted the anger “was still very much there”, particularly towards the US government for “everything they put us through”.

“We should never have had to have fought for justice.

“They picked on the wrong family.”

She said she also felt anger towards the UK government because it “rolled over” to the US and “did not stand up” for its own citizens.

Mrs Charles said fulfilling her promise to her son to get justice was the thing that made her most proud throughout the past four years.

Asked how she felt, she replied: “Extremely relieved – like I haven’t let him down.

“I’ve never broken a promise to either of my boys and I didn’t want to start at that point.

“I can feel like I’ve done everything I possibly could have done for him, and that is overwhelmingly peaceful.

“I don’t feel like I’ve got anything to be ashamed of any more.”

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