It was getting dark by the time Harry Dunn’s family went into the Oval Office on the evening of 15 October 2019.

They had travelled to the US 48 hours earlier to speak to TV networks to highlight what they said was the “gross injustice” of how Anne Sacoolas had left the UK after killing their son.

Harry’s parents, Charlotte and Tim, were talking to Sky News on the rooftop terrace of a New York skyscraper when, without warning, they received a call summoning them to the White House for a meeting.

They immediately hopped onto the Amtrak train – and made the three-and-a-half-hour trip to Washington.

It wasn’t until they set foot in the Oval Office, the formal working space of the US president, that they realised then president Trump was actually there.

“Very quickly it turned into him trying to have a nice little photo op with Anne Sacoolas”, explained Harry’s mum, Charlotte Charles.

The woman who had killed their son was sitting in a room next door, apparently ready to meet them.

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“I then spoke up… and said, ‘We’re not here for that. We’re here to make sure that the US government and Anne Sacoolas does the right thing'”, Mrs Charles said.

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“You know, we need justice to be had for Harry and it was a full on five minute talk to Donald Trump straight from me to him, didn’t take my eyes off of him.

“Did my absolute best to get through to him, but as soon as he realised that we weren’t going to have that photo opportunity and to meet her, it certainly went quite cold.”

Mrs Charles said she made it clear to the president, and other officials present, that Mrs Sacoolas had to face justice in the UK before they could meet. She claims it was pointed out to her that the “treasurer” was in the room.

“We weren’t there to be paid off. We were there to get justice for our boy. No amount of money that they’d have written a cheque for would have been enough,” she said.

“We were just were not there for that. We were there to get her to do the right thing, to get them to do the right thing.

“He treated us absolutely despicably, they all did. None of them were pleasant at all, from the moment we said no, extremely intimidating.”

Following the meeting, the president told reporters that he had earlier spoken to then UK prime minister Boris Johnson about bringing Mrs Sacoolas into the meeting. He said: “I spoke with Boris. He asked me if I would do that. I did it.

“Unfortunately they wanted to meet with her and unfortunately when we had everybody together they decided not to meet.

“Perhaps they had lawyers involved by that time, I don’t know exactly. I know the people were lovely, very nice and they were desperately sad.”

“The US did it their way”, Mrs Charles said, “and it’s not the right way at all. We’ve still got a lot more questions than we’ve got answers. But, moving forward, well, we’ll work our hardest to make sure this doesn’t happen ever again.”