Trump ‘very graceful’ in White House meeting, say Harry Dunn parents
But the teenager’s parents said they are no ‘further along’ in their quest for justice for their son.
The family of British teenager Harry Dunn have described Donald Trump as “very graceful” after meeting the US president at the White House.
But the teenager’s parents said they are no “further along” after being told that the US woman allegedly responsible for their son’s death would not return to the UK.
Anne Sacoolas left the UK after the crash in Northamptonshire which killed the 19-year-old in August.
Tim Dunn, Harry’s father, 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.”
Harry’s mother, Charlotte Charles, said: “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.”
Asked about how it felt to have taken their fight for justice all the way to the White House, Mrs Charles said: “We were very proud of (Harry), extremely proud of him, and we set out to make him – when he’s riding the skies up there – very proud of us and his twin brother, and he would have been a little bit blown away, I think.”
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 on to us”.
Mrs Charles added: “But I don’t think it would be appropriate to meet her without therapists or mediators in the room.”
She added she thought the attempt to get them to meet Mrs Sacoolas could be viewed as an effort to sweep the matter under the carpet.
“I think by having (Mrs Sacoolas) there they were hoping that would be enough for us – seven weeks on, it’s not enough.
“The frustrating part is we’ve been saying since starting out on this mission to get justice for our son that we would meet her and we are still more than willing to meet her, but we made it very clear that needs to be on our terms.
“It needs to be on UK soil when she has faced our justice system.”