The American woman claiming diplomatic immunity over the death of a teenage motorcyclist in Britain was once a senior CIA spy, according to UK reports on Sunday.
Anne Sacoolas, 42, fled the UK after the death last August of 19-year-old biker Harry Dunn, claiming diplomatic immunity because her husband, Jonathan Sacoolas, worked in a still-murky US diplomatic job.
But she was previously an agent for the CIA who was more senior than her husband, according to the Mail on Sunday, which cited multiple sources in both Washington and London.
Sky News also confirmed Sacoolas’ previously role in the CIA, it said, with former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt telling the broadcaster that it could explain why the US has remained so steadfast in barring extradition.
Dunn’s still-grieving mother, Charlotte Charles, claimed that “things are now beginning to fall into place” as to why extradition was being blocked, the Mail said.
Sacoolas, a mother of three, was reportedly driving on the wrong side of the road when her Volvo fatally struck the young motorcyclist outside a US intelligence facility in Northamptonshire on Aug. 27. She has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving in her absence.
The UK’s Foreign Office has only said that Sacoolas was “was notified to us as a spouse with no official role” – but senior figures in British politics told the Mail that her CIA background was well known there.
“You never really leave the CIA,” one security source told the UK paper, which cited US government sources as also saying she was “not active” in the UK at the time of the fatal crash.
Dunn’s mother said she was “livid” and her family “full of anger” to hear the news from the media and not the government officials they have been closely working with.
“It is an absolute scandal,” she said in a statement, with the family spokesman, Radd Seiger, also calling for a full public inquiry.
Seiger called the news “deeply disturbing on every level,” asking, “Who knew what and when?”
“It is high time that the nation can see with full transparency whether or not the Government prioritized the protecting the identity of the Sacoolas family over the welfare and rights of Harry’s family,” Seiger said.
The US State Department declined to comment on the spy claims.
“The driver was the spouse of an accredited diplomat to the United Kingdom,” the department told the Mail on Sunday.