Virtual proceedings impossible if Donald Trump was still president – Dunn family

Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn said they hoped their son’s case would help other families achieve justice.

The parents of Harry Dunn Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn speak to media, at home in north Oxfordshire after observing proceedings at the High Court via videolink. (PA Archive)

The virtual proceedings conducted for Harry Dunn’s killer would not have been possible if Donald Trump was still president, the teenager’s parents have said.

Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn said despite campaigning for Anne Sacoolas to physically return to the UK, they hoped their case would help other families achieve justice in future.

Asked if she still saw the family’s campaign as a success given Sacoolas only ever appeared via video-link, Mrs Charles told the PA news agency: “To me, it’s still definitely what we campaigned for.

“We had no idea we were going to be all dealing with a pandemic amongst all of this as well.

“Thankfully for us the remote process came about during Covid.”

She continued: “We’re all for innovation, technology, moving forward.

“Harry was a huge IT geek, bless him.

“Besides being so passionate about his riding is his bikes, his next love was IT.

“So if we didn’t back technology and innovation, I think I’d be feeling like I’d let him down a little bit too.

“It is a way of getting UK justice, still on UK soil because it’s our courts, yes remotely, but it also fulfils how we felt at the beginning about not separating her (Sacoolas) from her children.”

Reflecting on whether this would have been possible with Mr Trump as President, Mrs Charles added: “Selfishly, I suppose, it was also like ‘this is our lives, do we want to fight for many, many, many more years to still achieve a remote process?’

“We’ve had our extradition request turned down – if Donald Trump was still in the White House I don’t even think the remote process would have taken place.

“We’ve got President (Joe) Biden to at least say a small thank you for that – even though we still don’t approve of how the US Government has treated us.

“But at least he did tell us the door was open to prosecution.

“So as a family we ran with that – we grabbed that opportunity because we owe it to Niall (Harry’s twin brother) and we owe it to our parents.

“We owe it to our friends to be able to show them that there’s actually a way that we can try and get some quality of life back.

If Donald Trump was still in the White House I don't even think the remote process would have taken place

Charlotte Charles, Harry Dunn's mother

“So when you get that opportunity to have that done sooner rather than later, take it.”

Giving his thoughts on the remote process, Mr Dunn said: “It was also a case of, if this is the way forward, then hopefully it’s a way forward for other cases, because there are other cases out there that have the same sort of stumbling block.

“So if this is now a way forward and it opens up new avenues for them, then that’s also a good thing.

“As Charlotte said, Harry loved his IT, loved that sort of thing, and I think he would be secretly thinking, this is pretty cool – to know that he is starting this whole process off.”

Mrs Charles added: “There are other families that we are in touch with that have unfortunately not had their justice because their loved ones’ killer, for want of a better word, are back in their own countries.

“Those families may well now be able to get their cases reopened or re-looked at and Harry may have started something that could yet leave another legacy for him.”