Anne Sacoolas said she made a “tragic mistake” that caused the death of biker Harry Dunn, an inquest heard

According to an inquest into Harry Dunn’s death, Anne Sacoolas apologised for her “tragic mistake” which led to Harry Dunn’s death.

In a voluntary police interview two months after the 2019 accident, the transcript of which was read to the inquest court on Wednesday, the US government employee insisted she had been a “safe driver”.

The inquest, at which Sacoolas was not present, heard that when asked by Northamptonshire Police what she thought the cause of the accident was, she replied: “I was driving like an American, on the American side of the road.”

In a witness statement, Sacoolas said the fatal collision in August of that year was something that would haunt her “every single day for the rest of her life.”

In response to Sacoolas’ statements to the court, a spokesman for Mr. Thin Radd Seiger said: “We have heard most of this before.

“Why on earth is Sacoolas not in court to answer the questions of the court and the family?”

The US State Department claimed diplomatic immunity on Sacoolas’ behalf and she left the UK 19 days after the crash.

In December 2022, she appeared via video link before a High Court judge at the Old Bailey, where she pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better brother,” says Harry Dunn’s twin during the examination

The US State Department advised Sacoolas not to attend the sentencing hearing. The Dunn family responded by saying they were “appalled” that the American government was “actively interfering in our criminal justice system”.

she was sentenced to eight months in prisonsuspended for one year.

In one of her witness statements, Sacoolas said she “instinctively moved to the right side of the road” and did not know she was on the wrong side of the road “until after the collision.”

A statement from her US lawyers in September 2020 said Sacoolas was driving on the wrong side of the road for 20 seconds before hitting Mr Dunn outside RAF Croughton base in Northamptonshire.

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In her testimony read out at the inquest, she said that after the accident she “hysterically stopped a female driver” and “begged her to get help.”

The 45-year-old said she had not received any training on driving on British roads since arriving in the country.

Sacoolas, who had told police that she was employed as an analyst for the U.S. State Department, declined the coroner’s request to give personal testimony at the inquest.

Her lawyer, Ben Cooper KC, had previously told the court that she had “done everything in her power to assist this investigation” and offered to “answer any further questions”.

Concluding her latest statement, Sacoolas said: “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of Harry and I am deeply sorry for any pain I have caused.”

The investigation is ongoing.