The family of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn have said they will “never forgive” a disgraced former police chief as a new report lays bare a string of failures in the force’s response to the incident.
Northamptonshire Police have issued an apology over their handling of the investigation into the 19-year-old’s death, which exploded into a transatlantic diplomatic row when it emerged that he had been hit by a US state department employee driving on the wrong side of the road.
Anne Sacoolas, who was able to leave the UK under diplomatic immunity laws 19 days after the crash, was not arrested at the scene after police prioritised her welfare over a “prompt and effective investigation”, a review has concluded.
The report, published on Wednesday, concluded that the “overriding factor” in the decision by the officer at the scene not to arrest Sacoolas was that she appeared to be suffering from shock.
Dunn’s mother Charlotte Charles said the 118-page report confirms “that we were failed by the very people we should have been able to trust”.
“Harry was left to die on the roadside,” she said. “Sacoolas was not arrested, even though the police had every power to do so. She fled the country, and they didn’t tell us. They mishandled vital evidence, including Harry’s clothing, which we now know was left in storage for years with his remains still on it.”
The independent review also criticised the actions of Northamptonshire Police’s former chief constable Nick Adderley, whose “erroneous statements” about Sacoolas’s immunity status led the Foreign Office to contact the force to ask him not to repeat them.
Mr Adderley was separately dismissed last June for gross misconduct after he was accused of misrepresenting his naval military service, including being photographed wearing a medal, which gave the false impression that he had served in the Falklands.
The report found that his behaviour, including criticising the Dunn family’s spokesperson at a press conference and posting a controversial tweet on Twitter (now X), had helped to contribute to the breakdown of relations with the bereaved family.
Mr Adderley personally wrote to the family to apologise for the breakdown in communication in 2019. He added that any perception of a falling out had been a “total misunderstanding” and that certain tweets and conversations had been “completely misconstrued”.
But on Tuesday, Ms Charles described him as a “nasty, vindictive, lying little man”, adding: “I remain so angry at Adderley to this day.
“We knew from the outset that there was a problem with him, and we will never forgive him for launching his personal attacks on our neighbour and spokesperson Radd Seiger, the one human being in our tragedy who had the courage to stand up and help us when the police and our own government refused to do that.
“I am glad he is long gone and will never be able to police again.”
Dunn was killed when Sacoolas’s Volvo, which was travelling on the wrong side of the road, struck his motorbike near the US military base RAF Croughton, in Northamptonshire, in August 2019.
After diplomatic immunity was asserted on behalf of the US suspect, the Dunn family spent three years campaigning for justice, which saw them meet US president Donald Trump in the White House.
Sacoolas eventually pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving in December 2022, via video link at the Old Bailey, and she later received an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.
Ms Charles, who was last week appointed an MBE in the King’s birthday honours for her road safety campaigning, urged the police to ensure that the 38 recommendations in the report are urgently adopted.
They include recommendations that the force should adopt an “investigative mindset” at serious road crashes, and that it should review how it recovers material from the scene of a collision.
The report also criticised the forensic recovery process at the scene, which led to the discovery of human tissue on Dunn’s clothing four years after the crash – prompting the grieving family to hold a second funeral in March last year.
Mr Seiger, a spokesperson for the family, questioned whether other cases should be reviewed, considering the failings identified in the report that took place while Mr Adderley was in post.
He added: “It lays bare, in graphic detail, a series of grave errors, including an almost total absence of capable leadership from the now disgraced and dismissed ex chief constable Nick Adderley, the failure to arrest Anne Sacoolas at the scene, the failure to declare a critical incident, the breakdown in family liaison, and the shameful mishandling of Harry’s human remains.”
Assistant Chief Constable Emma James issued an apology to the family on behalf of the force, saying: “First and foremost, on behalf of Northamptonshire Police, I want to apologise to Harry’s family for what it is now clear was a failure on our part to do the very best for the victim in this case, Harry, and his family, who fought tirelessly in the years that followed to achieve justice for him.
“The picture which emerges is one of a force which has failed the family on a number of fronts, and we hope the findings, which are troubling in several respects, will provide some answers to questions which the family will have wanted to know in the years that have passed.
“I hope some good comes out of this. Much of the learning which the force has taken from this has already been put in place, and we make a number of specific recommendations for best practice at a national level.
“We have taken a deep look at ourselves, and hope the transparent way we have identified failings of the past will go some way to rebuilding the confidence of Harry’s family and friends going forward, as well as the wider public at large.”
