The archbishop of Canterbury has written to the US ambassador in London demanding that the wife of an American diplomat be extradited to the UK for police questioning over the death of Harry Dunn.
Justin Welby has intervened in the long-running dispute over diplomatic immunity after Dunn, 19, was killed when his motorbike was involved in a head-on collision with a car.
Anne Sacoolas, the motorist suspected of driving the Volvo in Northamptonshire on 27 August, admitted she had been driving on the wrong side of the road outside RAF Croughton during the crash but claimed diplomatic immunity and was allowed to return to Maryland.
A letter was sent on 8 October from the archbishop’s official residence at Lambeth Palace in London, although he has yet to receive a reply.
The archbishop said Sacoolas, 42, should be extradited to the UK to allow a “full and proper investigation”.
A spokesman for Welby, 63, told the Daily Mail: “The archbishop has written to the US ambassador Robert Wood Johnson asking him to reconsider the diplomatic immunity.
“He would like Mrs Sacoolas to return so a full and proper investigation can be carried out.”
Welby’s daughter, Johanna, was killed aged seven months old in France in 1983 after a road traffic accident.
The archbishop and his wife Caroline mark each anniversary of their baby daughter’s death.
Dunn’s parents are taking legal action against the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, and have submitted a judicial review accusing him of misusing or abusing his power by granting Sacoolas diplomatic immunity, after which she left the country.
They say secret treaties between the UK and US that give intelligence staff at the base legal protection have been disclosed to them and that the documents make no reference about immunity for family members.
The family’s spokesman, Radd Seiger, said the case was “likely to be appealed” by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and if it goes to the supreme court, would cost them upwards of £50,000.
The FCOhas said it would “oppose and seek costs” for any judicial review, and that claims of any misuse or abuse of power by Raab were “entirely without foundation”.
The FCO has said Sacoolas no longer has immunity from prosecution having returned home to Maryland.
Last month she met Northamptonshire police officers who travelled to the US to take further statements.
Tim Dunn and Charlotte Charles, Harry’s parents, travelled to the White House in October to meet Donald Trump, who expressed sympathy but refused to force Sacoolas to return to the UK.
Sacoolas was waiting in a side room and prepared to meet the family at the White House, however the Dunns rejected the offer and said they had felt “a little ambushed” by the suggestion.