Harry Dunn's mother says meeting Anne Sacoolas at White House would 'not have been appropriate'

  • Video report by ITV News Correspondent Neil Connery

The mother of British teenager Harry Dunn said the meeting President Donald Trump tried to organise with the US woman allegedly responsible for her son's death was "not appropriate."

The teenager's parents met with President Trump at the White House on Tuesday, describing him as "very graceful."

But Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn refused to meet Anne Sacoolas, who was in the next room.

Charlotte Charles said it would not have been 'appropriate' to meet Anne Sacoolas at the White House. Credit: Craig Ruttle/AP

Ms Sacoolas left the UK after the crash in Northamptonshire which killed the 19-year-old in August.

Ms Charles told reporters outside the White House: "Our grief has been locked in, for seven weeks, it's not appropriate to meet her, without therapists and mediators, let alone for us, as a family, but also for her, I don't think it's appropriate for her.

"How can it be comfortable for her, to be thrown into a situation like that."

While Harry’s father Mr Dunn said of turning down the chance to meet Mrs Sacoolas at the White House: “We weren’t ready to meet her, it would have been too rushed.

But he added that the meeting “didn’t feel like a stunt – they didn’t try and force it onto us”.

However the teenager’s parents said they are no “further along” after being told Ms Sacoolas would not return to the UK.

Ms Charles said: “We didn’t get the answers that we wanted.

“They couldn’t tell us who made the decision to bring her back to the US.

“We asked how long she was there for and they still said three weeks.”

Anne Sacoolas fled the UK after the crash claiming diplomatic immunity. Credit: Handout

Harry’s father, Mr Dunn, said: “I think the president was very graceful and spoke very well to us.”

“Obviously, we’ve just met the president and we never thought we’d get this far but I don’t know whether we’re any further along.”

However, Ms Charles said she left the meeting with a "tiny little bit of hope" after Mr Trump told her he would try to push this from a different angle.

She added: “When he (President Trump) held my hand, I gripped it a lot tighter and I was honest with him and just said, as I said a while ago, ‘if it was your son you would be doing the same as us’.

“He actually gripped my hand a little bit tighter and said ‘Yes, I would be’.

“And that’s when he said he would try and look at this from a different angle.

“He seemed to understand that our grief has been locked in for seven weeks now on a case that should have been very, very clear-cut.”

Mr Dunn said: “He listened to Charlotte very well – she spoke excellently to him and he was very understanding.

“I genuinely do think he will look to resolve this in a way that will help us.”