Harry Dunn should have been celebrating his 20th birthday last month: a significant milestone — the ending of the teenage years and a move into the world of fully fledged adulthood with all its exciting opportunities.
Now, nearly eight months after his death under the wheels of a car driven on the wrong side of the road by American intelligence officer’s wife Anne Sacoolas, the day brought his mother nothing but pain.
Charlotte would, if she could, have stayed in bed all day to try to erase the date completely.
But that wasn’t an option for this extraordinary woman, whose battle for justice for her son has come to epitomise the power of a mother’s love.
Charlotte, 44, is pictured at home in Charlton. She says she wanted to stay in bed all day on her son’s birthday last month
Because Sunday March 22 wasn’t just Harry’s birthday. It was also his twin brother Niall’s.
Niall’s suffering since his brother died in August is almost unimaginable. What should have been a joint celebration — which, of course, by a hideous twist of fate fell on Mother’s Day this year was a traumatic day.
‘I’m acutely aware that it’s Niall’s birthday, too,’ says Charlotte, 44. ‘It’s infinitely more difficult for him than for me. Whatever I’m feeling I have to put aside to help Niall.’
Of all the many horrors that Harry’s death has thrown up — from the bewildering miasma of revelations about Anne Sacoolas’s background to the mystery of why the U.S. Government is refusing extradition requests — this is one Charlotte knew she had to face full on. ‘I have to steel myself not to look back,’ she says.
‘But I honestly don’t know how to look forward when there is no normal any more. Birthdays used to be glorious.’
Harry liked nothing better than to snap on his prized new £700 motorcycle helmet, leap onto his beloved Kawasaki and go for a ride in the countryside around his home in Northamptonshire.
In the evening, there would have been a family party with cards, presents and a cake.
Harry (right) is pictured with his twin brother Niall when they were both aged three
‘With two boys, it was always double the fun,’ says Charlotte. ‘And, of course, there were two cakes: one cake to share was never good enough. It was always Victoria sponge for Harry and chocolate for Niall.
‘The twins’ 16th birthday was the day Harry passed his motorbike test. I honestly believe it was the happiest day of his life. Now Niall had to face a birthday alone for the first time in his life. We’ve had other milestones — the first Christmas without Harry and my birthday, which I chose to completely ignore. But this was the worst.
‘I have bought him presents and I baked two cakes as usual, one for Niall and one for Harry, because anything else would have seemed so wrong. But I know it is agony for Niall, and there is absolutely nothing I can do to take away the pain.’
Charlotte was determined to put on her bravest face and summon up her brightest smile.
But when we met in the neat two-bedroom home in Charlton, near Banbury, she shares with her husband, Bruce Charles, 55, and Niall — who has moved back home after Harry’s death — her agony is palpable.
She has been ensnared in a diplomatic labryinth ever since Anne Sacoolas, 42, a mother-of-three, fled the country claiming diplomatic immunity within days of the crash on August 27.
Eight months ago Harry (pictured) died under the wheels of a car driven on the wrong side of the road by American intelligence officer’s wife Anne Sacoolas
Mrs Sacoolas is now back in Virginia where she has been photographed doing the school run and going about her normal life.
Despite being charged with causing death by dangerous driving, Mrs Sacoolas — now exposed as a former CIA spy — has refused to return to the UK.
The twists and turns are hard to follow. Last month came the revelation of a ‘smoking gun’ text message from a Foreign Office official agreeing to Anne Sacoolas leaving Britain ‘on the next flight out’.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has always said the Foreign Office strongly objected to her departure. But the existence of the text has left Charlotte shattered.
‘It’s what we always suspected,’ she says. ‘What makes it most despicable is the casual way permission was granted — in a text message. It’s utterly dismissive of my son’s life.
‘Dominic Raab doesn’t just owe us an explanation, but an apology. I am furious and even more determined to get justice for Harry.’
In the months since his death, Charlotte’s tearful, wretched face has been a familiar sight on TV as she continues to fight for her boy.
A tiny woman — she’s just 5ft 1in — her soft, feminine voice belies her steely determination, and now fury.
This, remember, is the woman who faced down Donald Trump in the White House in October when he tried to sweet-talk her into making up with Anne Sacoolas who had been secreted into the room next door.
Mrs Sacoolas (pictured in a photograph from her sister’s Facebook page) left for the US and has been carrying on her life as normal
She says crisply: ‘Trump was gracious and seemed sincere. But we felt exploited. Just because he’s the President, it wasn’t going to make me change my mind. This is the woman who killed my boy and ran away.’
Charlotte knows that — as in every other aspect of this horrific tragedy — she can call on the loving support of her husband as well as the boys’ father, Tim, 50, a maintenance manager, and his wife, Tracey, 52, who works for the NHS in coding.
Charlotte and Tim remained on very good terms since their divorce when their twin boys were toddlers, and both couples live just four miles apart.
One of the most remarkable aspects of this extraordinary story is the deep affection and loyalty of the entire family.
Everyone is involved in the campaign, Justice4Harry, which has more than three million followers on Facebook.
Tracey’s son Miles, 31, who works in IT, runs fundraising campaigns at Northampton Town Football Club where Harry was a keen supporter.
He’s backed by his sister, Larna, 29, an administrator at Silverstone Circuit. Bruce’s son Ciaran, 31, who works for BMW, labours long into the night, seven days a week, running the Dunns’ social media pages.
He’s helped by his brother Michael, 33, a postman. And last week the brothers — both talented musicians — went into a studio to record a song in Harry’s honour.
Charlotte is pictured alongside her partner Tim Dunn on This Morning last October
Requiem For A Soldier, the theme tune of the TV series Band Of Brothers about World War II soldiers, will be released in digital form this spring to raise funds for their campaign.
It’s being produced by rock band Marillion. Lead singer Steve Hogarth lives near the Dunns and offered to help. It proves a deeply poignant testament to the tight bond they shared with Harry.
Ciaran, a talented guitarist who studied at Leeds College of Music, says: ‘The song is all about being a band of brothers, and that’s exactly what we were.
‘There’s one particular line: You never lived to see what you gave to me, which cracks us both up. I hope Harry knew how much we loved him.
‘Because our parents got together when the twins were tiny, we never saw them as “steps”. We were all just one big gang.
‘We got all the privileges of being big brothers, like teaching Hairy, as we nicknamed him, how to swim and taking him for his first legal drink at the pub.’
Michael agrees. ‘We were 12 and 14 when Dad got together with Charlotte and, as far as we were concerned the twins were a bonus.’
Charlotte’s pride is evident, although she admits she is yet to hear the song without crying. ‘It speaks to anyone who’s lost a son or brother. Harry would have been blown away by it,’ she says.
Grief-stricken Niall is yet to hear the recording. It’s simply too much. He has moved back into his old bedroom, unable either to return to his job as a steel fabricator, or his flat, since his brother died.
A planned protest was held at RAF Croughton to demand the return of Anne Sacoolas on January 4 this year
Both are within yards of the accident where the scorch marks from the horrific crash still mark the road. ‘For his brother’s sake, Niall wants the truth,’ says Charlotte. ‘Niall wouldn’t forgive me if we let this woman kill his brother without getting justice.’
Throughout our interview, Bruce sits beside Charlotte, attuned to her mood, gently stroking her arm or holding her hand.
The house resonates with Harry. There is a huge photo of him in his motorbike gear on the wall.
Green ribbons still flutter on trees and lampposts in towns and villages miles around where people knew and miss him.
Admirably hard working, he got his first part-time job at 15, cleaning at the boarding school where dad Tim is a maintenance manager.
A bright lad, Harry gained a clutch of good GCSEs at Magdalen School, Brackley, before taking a course in IT at Banbury and Bicester College.
He was working at a local garage, saving money, while considering a university course in IT at Northampton University.
He was clearly very skilled — having built a computer from scratch when he was just 14. But it was his passion for motorbikes which defined him.
‘Harry was born to live on two wheels,’ Charlotte smiles fondly. ‘He joked that any girlfriend would have to love his bike as much as he did. At Christmas, he had a silly Santa hat on top of his helmet, just to make people smile.’
Harry was on his bike the last time Charlotte saw him alive. It was 7pm and Harry was riding to visit his dad. ‘I was in the car and waved at him,’ Charlotte recalls. ‘He smiled and flashed his headlights at me.’
Two hours later, Charlotte was getting ready for bed when Tim rang to say he had been alerted by the police that Harry had been involved in an accident.
He had collided head-on with Anne Sacoolas’s Volvo XC90, which she was driving on the wrong side of the road near the USAF listening station RAF Croughton where her husband was based.
Harry’s body crumpled across her windscreen and his bike burst into flames.
Although 16 medical staff worked on him, Harry was dead by the time he reached Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.
‘At least I know he would have recognised the voices of the paramedics who were with him at the end,’ says Charlotte quietly. ‘He served them all coffee at the garage and knew them well.’
While Charlotte had been aghast when Harry had splashed out £700 on that top-of-the-range helmet, she’s forever grateful now.
It saved his face from injury. It meant his mother was able to kiss him goodbye, and snip off a lock of fair hair which she keeps beside her bed.
She also made a vow. ‘So when I kissed him goodbye, I promised him that, whoever killed him, would face justice.’
Although positions on both sides have hardened, Charlotte is adamant that she is not out for revenge on Mrs Sacoolas. ‘Two of her children were in the car at the time. That broke us — they must be traumatised,’ says Charlotte.
‘We’ve always said, that although we want justice, we want to work with the courts and police to get the charge reduced and push for a suspended sentence so she could carry on being mum.’
No wonder Charlotte now feels her instinctive kindness has been flung back in her face.
She feels utterly bewildered by the changing story about who exactly Anne Sacoolas is and why she is not being held to account for what she did.
But, however hard the knocks, Charlotte is determined to keep campaigning. It’s a campaign which has become much bigger than simply a fight to get Anne Sacoolas returned to Britain
Charlotte is also fighting for road safety to be improved around U.S. bases. Since Harry’s death, there have been videos shared of vehicles driving on the wrong side of the road near the bases.
The campaign is bearing fruit. Northants Police have started offering advice to U.S. personnel.
Charlotte also plans to establish a charity in Harry’s name to help others campaigning for justice.
‘I’m just an ordinary mum who made a promise to her boy,’ she says. ‘Harry was far too young to die. He was loving life and had so much still to do and to give. He was robbed of all that. It may take years, but I’m not giving up.’
The legal twists and turns may have dwarfed the very real personal tragedy. But it’s clear, whatever the outcome, this family will never stop loving the young man whose absence was felt so sorely on Mother’s Day. And they will never stop fighting for him.