Harry Dunn’s grieving family had many dark, despairing days – but their fight for justice never wavered

There are many families who would have chosen to hide away with their grief.

Whatever the injustice, the unspeakable pain of losing a child would have meant confronting that injustice would have been just too much.

Having just learned though that the driver who had killed their son had fled the country, Harry Dunn‘s family made a decision that would change their lives.

They invited me to speak to them about the crash and to share on Sky News the injustice they faced.

They had no idea whether it would change anything, but they simply refused to fade away and accept what had happened.

The toll the past three years has taken on them has been almost incalculable – Harry’s mum and dad, his twin brother Niall, and his step-parents Bruce and Tracey have all suffered and have endured many dark, despairing days, but they have never wavered in their determination to find justice for Harry.

Trump’s ‘hijack’

They have fought the battle on both sides of the Atlantic – even being ‘hijacked’ by President Trump in the Oval Office two weeks after they had spoken to Sky News and the world had latched on to their story.

He sprang the surprise on the parents that he had the driver, Anne Sacoolas, in the next room, and could they meet?

Harry’s family were totally unprepared for it and while many would have gone along with it, they refused to be bullied into something they didn’t want to do.

Again, they chose the harder path – but the path they believed was right.

On Thursday, Sacoolas was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for 12 months, after admitting careless driving.

Chance of justice? ‘Less than 1%’

Their campaign has been filled with setbacks, broken promises, people who should have helped but didn’t.

Ultimately, they were tackling a US government determined to protect one of its own intelligence agents. They were told by the British police they had a “less than 1% chance” of ever seeing justice.

They have now beaten those odds and seen Sacoolas convicted in a British court – albeit with her sat in Washington DC.

For Harry’s parents, the fact the sentence is suspended is not the point – she has been punished for what she did. She couldn’t simply run away.

They are an ordinary family from a quiet corner of Northamptonshire who refused to accept the hand fate had dealt them.

Their tenacity and courage are what secured justice for their boy – they knew they were right, they just had the fight of their lives to prove it.