A letter written by a friend of Harry Dunn’s alleged killer has revealed how the ex-CIA spy’s husband was also present at the time of the crash.
Writing to her local paper, Gail Hunter, 69, from Aiken, South Carolina, who is a long-time friend of alleged killer Anne Sacoolas, 43, attempted to defend the ex-CIA spy.
Claiming she could ‘no longer remain silent’, Hunter wrote in support of Sacoolas but accidentally provided extra details about the crash near RAF Croughton, Northamptonshire, which killed 19-year-old Harry Dunn, according to The Mirror.
Her account of the fatal incident placed Sacoolas’ husband Jonathan, 45, at the scene of the crash.
A letter written by Gail Hunter, 69, from Aiken, South Carolina, a friend of Harry Dunn’s alleged killer Anne Sacoolas, has revealed how the ex-CIA spy’s husband was also present at the time of the crash that killed the 19-year-old (pictured)
Hunter wrote: ‘Anne was at the scene of the accident, as was her husband, when the ambulance arrived 42 minutes later – an appalling delay in medical care compounded by another hour delay before he was admitted to the hospital where he later died – and remained at the scene until officials told her to leave.’
Hunter also claims in her letter that the claim that Sacoolas left the scene of the crash was false and that she had done everything she could to call for help.
The 69-year-old who has known Anne Sacoolas since she was 13-years-old, wrote to her paper after anger in their hometown grew over Anne’s refusal to return to the UK.
She claims that Anne will live with the tragedy for the rest of their lives and that what happened was an accident which ‘can happen to any of us as well’.
The account is the first time that Jonathan Sacoolas has been placed at the scene of the crash.
Anne Sacoolas is alleged to have killed Harry Dunn in a collision on August 27, 2019, near to RAF Croughton.
Writing to her local paper, Gail Hunter, 69, from Aiken, South Carolina, who is a long-time friend of alleged killer Anne Sacoolas, 43, attempted to defend the ex-CIA spy (pictured)
She was charged with causing death by dangerous driving, but because of her role, Sacoolas and her husband claimed diplomatic immunity and fled the country weeks after the crash.
The action Mr and Mrs Sacoolas took at the time of the crash forms part of the legal action Harry Dunn’s parents are taking against US couple.
It comes after a US judge gave Harry Dunn’s family the go-ahead to push on with a civil claim against Mr and Mrs Sacoolas in the US.
A judge’s ruling in the Alexandria district court in Virginia has taken the Dunn family a step closer to a legal showdown with suspect Anne Sacoolas, 18 months on from the 19-year-old’s death.
Should there be no settlement in the case, the next legal step would be a ‘deposition’, in which Sacoolas and her husband would be forced to provide their account of events outside of court.
It comes after a US judge gave Harry Dunn’s family the go-ahead to push on with a civil claim against Mr and Mrs Sacoolas in the US. Pictured: Harry Dunn’s mother Charlotte Charles on October 9, 2019
Mr Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, father Tim Dunn and twin brother Niall Dunn, would have the option to attend the deposition.
The US Government asserted diplomatic immunity on behalf of 43-year-old Sacoolas following the road crash which killed Mr Dunn outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in August 2019.
She was charged with causing death by dangerous driving, but an extradition request submitted by the Home Office was rejected by the US State Department in January last year.
On Wednesday, Judge Thomas Ellis ruled the Dunn family could proceed with their civil claim against both Mr and Mrs Sacoolas – allowing a claim of ‘vicarious liability’ to be brought against the suspect’s husband.
The Virginia State law of vicarious liability means Mr Sacoolas could be liable for the teenager’s death by allowing his wife to use the car which killed him.
Home Secretary Dominic Raab (pictured) also raised the death of Harry Dunn with the US Secretary of State prior to the court hearing
The judge told Sacoolas’s lawyer, John McGavin, he ‘would probably have read the case a little bit differently’ if the pre-trial procedure of ‘discovery’, or the compilation of evidence, was ‘easier to come by’.
Home Secretary Dominic Raab also raised the death of Harry Dunn with the US Secretary of State prior to the court hearing.
Raab spoke to US official Tony Blinken before the hearing at the Alexandria district court in Virginia.
The Prime Minister confirmed to the Dunn family’s constituency MP Andrea Leadsom on Wednesday that the UK Government continues raise the case ‘at the highest level’.
Asked at Prime Minister’s Questions if he could try to persuade President Joe Biden to deliver justice for Mr Dunn, Boris Johnson said: ‘She’s completely right to continue to raise the case of Harry Dunn and we sympathise deeply with his family.
‘It’s a case that we continue to raise at the highest level and I know that my Right Honourable Friend the Foreign Secretary has only just raised it now with Tony Blinken, the US secretary of state.’