Harry Dunn's family ready for first court hearing in long road to getting justice for Northamptonshire teenager

Suing the Government and your own police force has become just another day for Harry Dunn's parents - but they never wanted any of this.

"Not too many people in their lifetimes get to take on the Government, you don't do that sort of thing lightly," the family's spokesman and advisor, Radd Seiger, told this newspaper.

"They've still not been able to start the grieving process for Harry. They didn't want this.

"You don't get more normal than our neck of the woods and our lives before this but unfortunately Harry was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Today (Thursday, June 18) is the first High Court hearing in the Northamptonshire family's bid to get a judicial review into how the Government let Harry's alleged killer leave the country.

Northamptonshire Police is involved because the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) initially blamed the force but they are on the page, according to Mr Seiger.

Both argue that Government officials should not have agreed with their United States counterparts that Anne Sacoolas was covered by diplomatic immunity over an anomaly in the agreement between the two countries over RAF Croughton.

The arrangement which waived diplomatic immunity for American officials at the base outside Croughton, near Brackley, did not mention spouses.

So US lawyers decided this meant Sacoolas, who had only recently arrived in Northamptonshire with her family as her husband had been posted to the airbase used by the CIA, was protected from the law after driving in the wrong side of the road and fatally crashing into Harry's motorcycle in August.

Instead, the family and police claim it should have been up to the force to decide if Sacoolas was covered by diplomatic immunity, not the FCO.

Furthermore, Northamptonshire Police should have been told the reasons for the diplomatic immunity and that the US was unlikely to waive it, as they had requested, so the suspect could have been kept in the UK.

"Effectively we and the police are walking into court hand in hand saying the FCO kept the police in the dark and didn't tell the police until the day after she left," Mr Seiger said.

"We feel very comfortable with where we're at, we've got the police saying the same thing as us and the Foreign Office in a bind and now we have to see what the courts make of it all.

"We're not anxious and we feel like we're doing the right thing."

Mr Seiger said the case management conference hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London is expected to be a 'very significant day' for the campaign, even if nothing is actually agreed.

While the family feels secure in its conviction, the potentially costly prospect of losing is impossible to ignore.

The Foreign Office has previously stated it will seek money from the campaigners to cover its costs should the Government win.

Mr Seiger said they are confident the FCO would not go ahead with what would be a PR disaster as the family is far from rich but willing to do whatever it takes to get justice.

"Anything is possible tomorrow but we certainly expect it to be a very significant day either way as what it should do tomorrow is force the Government to hand over a bunch of documents which will reveal why they let her go when they shouldn't have," he said.

"If nothing else we'll get that but the courts could grab the case and ask the Government, 'what are you doing? Of course this lady didn't have diplomatic immunity.'

"There will be High Court and Court of Appeal judges present and they don't get out of bed for procedural stuff so we're expecting it to be a very significant step."

Back in September, after the family had realised the gravity of the injustice against Harry, they contacted the FCO and police to find out what happened - never in their wildest dreams imagining it would get this far.

But Mr Seiger says they were 'effectively ignored' by both, forcing them to go public and launching their international campaign for justice, taking them from Whitehall to Washington.

The road to today has been filled with twists and turns surrounding what the Government did in those unclear days between the crash and the world learning about the 19-year-old from Charlton.

Meetings with some of the most powerful people in the land have led to hope and despair but in the end, the family feel betrayed by their own government.

Mr Seiger said: "The parents were vulnerable and you would expect senior and powerful people to be honest but they weren't so we're left thinking the courts are the only way to go.

"But it's not like we rushed in to it. The parents have been very patient and dignified and willing to accept that mistakes happen.

"We would be happy to forgive that, just admit to them and we can move one and find solutions.

"But the only thing we can think of is it's not in the Government's interests to admit they made a mistake and they will do anything they can to protect that, so here we are."