Parents of U.K. teen killed by American driver find "renewed hope" for justice with Biden
London — The mother of a 19-year-old British motorcycle rider killed in a crash involving an American woman who was allowed to return to the U.S. claiming diplomatic immunity has said Joe Biden's projected election win has given her "renewed hope" for justice. Charlotte Charles said after learning that Mr. Biden's first wife and one-year-old daughter were killed in a car accident in 1972, she believes he will have a "deeper understanding" of her family's pain.
Charles' comments came as Britain's High Court began hearing a case on Wednesday against the U.K.'s Foreign Office — the equivalent of the British State Department. Harry Dunn's parents assert in their claim that the Foreign Office unlawfully obstructed the police investigation into their son's death.
American Anne Sacoolas admitted to police that she caused the crash outside the RAF Croughton military base in Northamptonshire, England, on August 27 last year. Sacoolas, whose husband Jonathan Sacoolas worked as a technical assistant at the base, left the country a few weeks later after the U.S. asserted she was entitled to diplomatic immunity.
The 43-year-old mother-of-three, who currently lives in Virginia, was charged in the U.K. with causing death by dangerous driving last December, but an extradition request was rejected by the U.S. State Department in January — a decision it later described as "final."
President Trump attempted to quell outrage in the U.K. over Sacoolas' quick move back to the U.S. after the accident. Last October, he invited Dunn's parents to the White House and tried unsuccessfully to persuade the grieving couple to meet with Sacoolas, who was in an adjoining room.
The couple left the White House meeting saying they felt "ambushed" as they'd been given no prior notice that Sacoolas was going to be in the building.
"This, for my family, has always been about Harry," Charles said in a statement to CBS News before Wednesday's High Court hearing. "Both governments [U.S. and U.K.] asked us to accept that his life did not matter and that he and we did not deserve justice. Well his life did matter and we are entitled to justice."
"We are glad we are finally in Court and are hopeful that they will reach the right decision," the statement added.
The hearing was being conducted remotely and was expected to last two days.
