British parents grieving their teenage son have said that, during a visit to the White House on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump dropped the “bombshell” that the woman who allegedly killed him in a road crash was waiting for them in an adjoining room.
Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn turned down the rushed offer to meet Anne Sacoolas, describing it as “not appropriate” with no mediators or therapists present.
Their son, Harry Dunn, 19, died in August in a head-on collision between his motorcycle and a car being driven on the wrong side of the road, police in Northamptonshire, England, said.
Sacoolas was allegedly driving the car and, claiming diplomatic immunity on the basis of her husband’s job, flew back to the US.
Dunn’s parents traveled to New York this week to urge Sacoolas to return and engage with a police investigation.
They were surprised to receive an abrupt invitation to the White House in Washington on Tuesday — and even more taken aback by the offer that came without prior warning from Trump.
“The bombshell was dropped soon after we walked in the room: Anne Sacoolas was in the building and was willing to meet with us,” Charles told reporters after the meeting, which lasted 10 to 15 minutes.
“We made it very clear that, as we’ve said all along, we will meet with her and we would still love to meet with her, but it has to be on our terms and on UK soil,” she said.
“We were a bit shocked, but it didn’t really make any difference to us, to be perfectly honest. She could have been two miles away; it’s just she was in the room next door,” Charles said.
“Our grief’s been locked in for several weeks. It’s not appropriate to meet her without therapists and mediators for us as a family, but also for her. How can it be comfortable for her to be thrown into a situation like that without therapists and mediators?” she added.
Asked if they regarded the plan as a “stunt,” Tim Dunn hesitated before saying: “No, I don’t think so. I would think maybe they were trying to force it on to us, but I still think the president was sincere at the end when he spoke to Charlotte.”
At first, Trump also flatly ruled out any possibility of Sacoolas returning to the UK, without giving a reason, but he signaled a possible shift later in the conversation.
The couple also praised his warm and compassionate manner, saying that he held Charles’ hand.
“When we first got there, he extended his condolences to us, which did feel sincere. I don’t suppose we would have expected anything else. Many of his staff also did the same on the way in,” Charles said outside the White House.
“We then went round in circles a little bit, because I think they were trying desperately to get us to give in, to accept the invitation to meet her on their terms, which we weren’t willing to do,” she said.
“So, upon leaving the meeting and ending the meeting, I said: ‘If it was your 19-year-old son, or your son no matter what age, you would be doing the same as me.’ And he actually grabbed hold of my hand little bit tighter and he said: ‘Yes, I would be. Maybe we’ll try and push this from a different angle,’” Charles said. “There’s that tiny little bit of hope that he will take another look and maybe work harder for us.”
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS