News / Politics

Dunn family hits back at Foreign Office over leaked emails

Sunday, 17 January 2021 4:21 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 17 January 2021 7:05 PM ]

Foreign Office officials used disparaging language against Harry's Mother Charlotte Charles (L) and the family spokesman Radd Seiger (R)

Barely two days after the Foreign Office admitted it had used “unprofessional” and “unacceptable” language in internal emails about Harry Dunn’s family, the latter’s mother has spoken of her “hurt” and “upset”.

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Harry Dunn

In the documents, staff at the Foreign Office (renamed the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in September 2020), derided the Dunn family as being “so convinced … of everyone’s bad faith that it never crosses their mind that anything of that we are telling them might be true”.

To make matters worse, Foreign Office officials used highly unusual emotional language to describe the Dunn family spokesman, Radd Seiger (who is a US citizen) as “evil”, “aggressive” and “erratic”.

They went even further and accused Harry’s mother, Charlotte Charles, of displaying “excessive” behavior.

The Foreign Office documents were obtained through subject access requests by the Dunn family but the latter deny they leaked the contents to the media.

Shadow Foreign Secretary, Lisa Nandy, has demanded a full investigation into the leaks and is trying to force Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, to explain himself in front of MPs on Monday (January 18).

For her part, Harry’s mother, Charlotte, has accused the Foreign Office of “leaking to the press behind our backs to manage the story and take the sting out of the tail”.

“That was an absolute punch in the guts for us and I have been tearful and upset ever since. I’ve not been able to sleep at all”, Charlotte added.

Shadow foreign secretary, Nandy, has said the Foreign Office’s leaking of confidential emails “that describe a grieving mother’s reaction as excessive is absolutely unforgivable”.

“For the Government to treat this family with such contempt is beyond belief”, Nandy added.

Harry, 19, was killed in August 2019 after former US spy, Anne Sacoolas, crashed into his motorbike outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire, which houses a US spy base.

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The UK

Sacoolas was driving on the wrong side of the road at the time.

Sacoolas, who is married to a serving US spy formerly based at RAF Croughton, subsequently evaded justice by claiming diplomatic immunity and fleeing the UK.

It is widely believed the Foreign Office helped Sacoolas evade British justice.

Beside its obvious humanitarian dimension, the Dunn case has attracted enormous attention in the UK in so far as it has brought the British government’s servile attitude to the US (which refuses to extradite Sacoolas) into sharp relief.