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The 19-year-old died when his motorbike was in a crash with a car being driven by Anne Sacoolas on the wrong side of the road outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire. Sacoolas, whose husband Jonathan worked as a technical assistant at the base, left the country weeks later after the US said she was entitled to diplomatic immunity. Harry’s mother, Charlotte Charles, and father Tim Dunn, launched a legal challenge claiming mum-of-three Sacoolas should not have been granted immunity.

Their lawyer, Sam Wordsworth QC, told the High Court that Sacoolas had “no duties at all” at the base and therefore “never had any relevant immunity for the US to waive”.

But Lord Justice Flaux and Mr Justice Saini found the 43-year-old had diplomatic immunity “on arrival in the UK” under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which had not been expressly waived, meaning she had immunity at the time of Harry’s death.

The judges said: “We do not come to this conclusion with any enthusiasm.”

The family’s spokesman said Mr Dunn and Mrs Charles would appeal against the ruling.

Harry’s father Tim sobbed after hearing the news yesterday and said: “I still wake every morning in absolute disbelief that we are in this situation at all.

“It’s bad enough feeling the horrible pain of not having Harry around and missing him, but I can’t believe the [US and British] governments are putting us through this. It’s so cruel and needless.”

Harry’s mother Charlotte Charles said: “This court ruling is just a blip along the way. I promised my boy I would get him justice. No one is going to stand in our way.”

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “Anne Sacoolas needs to face justice in the UK and we will support the family with their legal claim in the US.”

Downing Street said Harry’s family would not face “high costs” from their legal case.

Sacoolas, 43, was charged last December with causing death by dangerous driving, but an extradition request was rejected by the US State Department in January – a decision it later described as “final”.

The Foreign Office argued its officials had “objected in strong terms” to Sacoolas leaving the UK, and emphasised that the department “wanted the Sacoolas family to cooperate with the UK authorities”.

Sacoolas’s legal representatives said: “We have been and remain willing to discuss a resolution with the UK authorities.”

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