'I can rest easier now', says mother of Harry Dunn

The mother of a young motorcyclist who was killed outside a US military base has said she can "rest easier" knowing changes will be made following an independent review.

Nineteen-year-old Harry Dunn was hit by a car driven on the wrong side of the road by American Anne Sacoolas, at RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in August 2019.

A review by Dame Anne Owers found the Foreign Office failed to treat the case as a crisis and withheld information from his family.

"There is no closure when you've lost a child... But [there is] comfort in knowing that everyone has been spoken to and knowing that going forward things should change," Charlotte Charles told the BBC.

Following the crash the driver of the car involved in the collision, US citizen Anne Sacoolas, left the UK and claimed diplomatic immunity prompting an international row.

In 2022, Sacoolas was handed an eight-month jail term, suspended for 12 months, after pleading guilty to criminal charges.

The report, published on Wednesday, examined actions taken by the department - now called the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) - between the teenager's death on 27 August and the end of December 2019.

Ms Charles told BBC Breakfast the report was "a lot to digest", but that she "felt justification for feeling abandoned in the early days".

Ms Charles criticised the then Conservative Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who she said was "extremely rude" and "awful" during their meetings, revealing that he asked her, "what do you expect me to do?"

"There was no confidence in our country and he was our foreign secretary, so we came away from every meeting with him feeling totally and utterly let down, feeling like our country was so weak," she said.

Ms Charles said the findings of the independent review had confirmed her feelings of abandonment by the then government.

"The overall feeling was I felt justification of feeling abandoned in the early days, because sadly that's what the report points out.

"They were horrifically dark times to feel so alone, not having your government back you."

A review earlier this year into the handling of the case by Northamptonshire Police was also highly critical.

Mr Dunn's family met with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper on Tuesday, seeking guarantees that recommendations from Dame Anne Owers's report would be implemented.

"There is no closure when you've lost a child," Ms Charles said.

"Every day still is very, very hard. But [there is] comfort in knowing that everyone has been spoken to and knowing that going forward things should change and being given the reassurance by Yvette Cooper that I'll be able to see that progress of change. I can rest easier at night time.

"I don't want this report to be put in a drawer collecting dust," she said.

"I need to know that the next family that need our government are not going to feel in the dark, ignored or pushed to one side and made to feel that their loved one does not matter, that needs to change."

Ms Charles said a further meeting had been agreed for 12 months' time.

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