Driver who killed Harry Dunn Given Suspended Sentence

The woman who killed teen British motorcyclist Harry Dunn by driving on the wrong side of the road in August 2019, received an eight-month sentence (suspended for 12 months) and a one-year driving ban at the Old Bailey in London, UK, on Thursday.

Anne Sacoolas, the American driver who, while driving on the wrong side of the road, struck Dunn head-on shortly after leaving RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire where her husband was stationed, was handed the sentence by Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb in a televised hearing that was broadcast across the nation and online.

Sacoolas didn’t appear in person despite the judge ordering her to be present in the courtroom for sentencing. Instead, she appeared by video link from her lawyer’s office in Virginia.

Sacoolas, who left the UK just weeks after the accident while claiming diplomatic immunity, earlier pleaded guilty to the charge of careless driving causing death. She was initially charged with the more serious offence of dangerous driving causing death.

Dunn’s family fought strenuously since the young man’s death to have Sacoolas brought to justice and their fight became took on an international element when government leaders even discussed the case in face-to-face meetings. Dunn’s parents even went to the US to meet with then-president Donald Trump to discuss their son’s death.

It’s not a happy ending to an unhappy story, but with any luck it will give Dunn’s family some sense of closure and a hint of the justice they’ve been seeking all along.