The mother of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn has questioned the leadership of the Prime Minister and criticised a lack of action in bringing her son’s alleged killer back to the UK.
Charlotte Charles told the PA news agency she felt as if her family had to drag the Government “through a hedgerow backwards” in order to take steps to achieve justice for the teenager.
Family spokesman Radd Seiger said the Government has been “making lots of public noise” but has “in reality delivered nothing of substance”.
Mrs Charles and Harry’s father Tim Dunn said they had seen “no evidence” of the Government reviewing its options after an extradition request for Anne Sacoolas was refused last month.
They said they had been told two possibilities were for Mrs Sacoolas to be tried in her absence or an Interpol Red Notice to be issued for the suspect.
The family have reissued their plea for an “urgent” meeting with Boris Johnson – saying they “know where we stand should he fail to accept the invitation”.
The 19-year-old was killed when his motorbike collided with a car outside a US military base in Northamptonshire on August 27 last year.
Mrs Sacoolas, 42, the wife of an intelligence official based at RAF Croughton, claimed diplomatic immunity following the crash and was able to return to her home country, sparking an international controversy.
Speaking to PA, Mrs Charles said: “It is so important to my family that no-one suffers the way we have. I will not let Harry’s death be in vain.
“I want his legacy to be that diplomats will stay and face the consequences of their crimes and not be allowed to run away, that we will get an ambulance to us when we need it and not when it’s too late, and to ensure that road safety in and around bases is significantly improved both for the American personnel and local residents.
“You would have thought that these would be issues that were important to the Government too and they would take urgent steps to work with us and to sort things and reassure the people. But not a bit of it.”
Mrs Charles added: “It feels like we are having to drag them through a hedgerow backwards. Where is Boris’s leadership?
“Where are the ministers who should be coming to us to tell us what they are going to do instead of Radd having to make regular demands?”
Calling for Mr Johnson to meet the family, Mr Seiger said: “There has been a wholesale absence in leadership on Boris Johnson’s part on these urgently critical issues that touch all of our lives.
“He is the one who could appoint one senior point of contact for us to deal with and drive all these points forward.
“That is why we wanted to see him, yet he continually runs away from the parents.
“I call on him now to state publicly what he is going to do to comply with his main duty to the people of the country he leads.
“It is no good having these American diplomats here supposedly keeping us safe from harm overseas whilst clearly posing a serious threat to our safety at home.
“Should he fail to do so, we will all form our own conclusions as to where his heart really lies.”
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