12pm: Britain is to pursue a virtual trial over the death of 19-year-old Harry Dunn.

The teenager was killed when a car allegedly driven by the wife of a US diplomat crashed into his motorbike near a US military base in Northamptonshire in 2019.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that while the US has blocked the extradition of Anne Sacoolas to face charges, the path is now clear for the UK to ask for a ‘virtual trial or process’.

Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The path is clear for the legal authorities in the UK to approach Anne Sacoolas’s lawyers – without any problem from the US government – to see whether some kind of virtual trial or process could allow some accountability and some solace and some justice for the Dunn family.’

He added: ‘I would like to see some accountability. I think the family deserve no less.’

His comments come after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said US President Joe Biden was ‘actively engaged’ and ‘extremely sympathetic’ about the case following a face-to-face meeting at the G7 summit in Cornwall this week.   

The aftermath sparked international controversy when Sacoolas, who worked at the US military base, had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf. This allowed her to leave the UK nine days after the crash.

She has since been charged with causing death by dangerous driving.

Mr Dunn’s mother Charlotte Charles said: ‘We are incredibly grateful that Harry’s case is being taken so seriously as to be raised on the eve of the G7 meeting with so many worldwide crises going on.

‘We very much hope that President Biden takes a different view to the previous administration, given his deeply personal connection to the case, having suffered loss in similar circumstances.’

Mr Biden’s first wife and daughter were killed in a road crash in 1972. 

The Dunn family has challenged the diplomatic immunity asserted on Sacoolas’s behalf, which will be heard in the UK Court of Appeal next year.

The family has also brought a civil claim against Sacoolas and her husband in the US state of Virginia.