Northamptonshire Police apologise after review criticises conduct in Harry Dunn case

Northamptonshire Police has apologised to the family of Harry Dunn after an independent review criticised their conduct in the case after his death.

Harry died after his motorbike was struck by a car that was driving on the wrong side of the B4031 road near RAF Croughton in south Northamptonshire on 27th August 2019. He was 19.

The car was being driven by an American woman called Anne Sacoolas, who was the wife of an American government employee working at the base and who returned to the US less than a month after the collision.

This incident and her exit from the UK prompted Harry’s family to launch of the Justice for Harry campaign, which eventually led to Sacoolas being convicted of causing death by careless driving in December 2022.

An independent review into Northamptonshire Police’s handling of the case finished in the publication of a 118-page report earlier this week.

The report documented what has been described as “a failure of leadership around the investigation, including the decision not to declare it as a critical incident, the lack of a so-called Gold Group structure around it which would have better enabled a more effective approach to co-ordinating police and partner activity.”

The report also criticised the decision not to arrest Sacoolas at the site of the crash and, later, not to have informed the family that Sacoolas had left the UK in September 2019 until some 10 days after the Force was notified that she had left the country.

There was additional criticism of the forensic recovery process following the collision which led to the discovery, more than four years later, of human tissue on Harry’s clothing which led to the grieving family holding a second funeral in March 2024.

The independent review was also very critical of former Chief Constable Nick Adderley. This was in regard to comments at a news conference in October 2019 that prompted a breakdown of relations with the family, along with the posting some days later of a subsequently deleted post on X (then known as Twitter) that further damaged the relationship. Adderley has since left Northamptonshire Police after being dismissed for gross misconduct in 2024.

The post led to the family calling for his resignation and was the subject of a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

ACC Emma James, the Force’s Head of Protective Services, who has overseen the delivery of the report, said the review would make very difficult reading, but hoped it would provide some answers for the family.

She said, “First and foremost, on behalf of Northamptonshire Police, I want to apologise to Harry’s family for what is now clear was a failure on our part to do the very best for the victim in this case, Harry, and his family who fought tirelessly in the years that followed to achieve justice for him.

“It’s no surprise that Harry’s mother Charlotte was so deservingly honoured just this last weekend with an MBE for her campaigning work in road safety.

“It was vitally important that Northamptonshire Police conducted this review into the most high-profile case in the Force’s history, a case where clear and significant shortcomings have now been properly and independently unearthed.

“The picture which emerges is one of a Force which has failed the family on a number of fronts, and we hope the findings, which are troubling in several respects, will provide some answers to questions which the family will have wanted to know in the years that have passed.

“I hope some good comes out of this. Much of the learning which the Force has taken from this has already been put in place and we make a number of specific recommendations for best practice at a national level.

“We have taken a deep look at ourselves and hope the transparent way we have identified failings of the past will go some way to re-building the confidence of Harry’s family and friends going forward as well as the wider public at large.”

Harry’s parents, Charlotte and Tim, met ACC James and the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, at a private meeting at Wootton Hall HQ on Monday when they were presented with the report’s findings for the first time.