How diplomats tried to dodge ‘gang-rape’, killings and vicious beating charges by crying immunity, just like Anne Sacoolas
AMERICAN spy's wife Anne Sacoolas sparked a fierce debate over diplomatic immunity this week after she fled the UK following a horror hit-and-run that killed a British teen.
But the 42-year-old is not the first person to have cried "immunity" to get out of trouble - with others using this legal right to swerve murder, rape and assault claims and multi-million-pound divorce payouts.
In Britain, around 20,000 registered diplomats and their families have diplomatic immunity to enable them to do their jobs in this country safely and without harassment.
Under this form of legal immunity, they are protected from prosecution anywhere in the UK - and likewise, British diplomats working abroad are immune in the foreign state.
"Diplomatic immunity is being abused - it's a scandal"
This protection dates back centuries and is crucial to international relations, yet experts say it's being routinely "abused" by some to get away with crimes as well as protect their fortune in divorce settlements.
"This is a scandal," human rights lawyer Mark Stephens tells Sun Online. "[Evading the law] is not what they were given diplomatic immunity for - it was to enable them to do their job."
Here, as 19-year-old hit-and-run victim Harry Dunn's family plead for the mum of two to return to the UK, we look at other controversial cases where diplomatic immunity has been claimed...
The drunk diplomat who killed a teen girl
Republic of Georgia diplomat Gueorgui Makharadze claimed diplomatic immunity after causing a five-car pile-up in Washington DC that killed a teenage girl and injured four others.
Makharadze, then number two at his country's embassy in the US capital, ploughed his Ford into a row of vehicles in January 1997, crushing and killing 16-year-old Joviane Waltrick.
Cops said he was drunk and driving at 90mph at the time.
Initially, the law couldn't touch Makharadze due to his diplomatic status. But, with a "heavy heart", his home nation decided to waive his immunity so he could face justice in America's courts.
Makharadze was jailed for seven years after admitting involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.
The Wimbledon legend battling bankruptcy case
Even celebrities have claimed diplomatic immunity to try to get out of trouble.
Last year, Wimbledon legend Boris Becker did just this when faced with an attempt to sue him - claiming he had legal protection due to his role as a Central African Republic (CAR) diplomat .
But he cited his recent appointment by the CAR - an impoverished nation - as a sport and culture attache to the EU, claiming it gave him immunity in the bankruptcy proceedings.
He later abandoned the defence, for unclear reasons.
The billionaire who didn't want to pay for wife's handbag obsession
When Sheikh Walid Juffali's supermodel ex-wife made a claim on his £4 billion fortune in a high-profile divorce battle, he used his diplomatic position with a Caribbean island to try to stop her.
The Saudi businessman's former wife Christina Estrada - once a Pirelli calendar girl - reportedly demanded more than £200 million.
She is also said to have wanted £116,000 a year for handbags and £83,000 for cocktail dresses.
The civil case was later settled out of court, for an undisclosed sum.
When he was assigned to Delhi, he brought them with him.
Despite the women's shocking claims, the diplomat was allowed to leave India without facing prosecution due to his diplomatic privileges, sparking fury in both the country and in Nepal.
His own embassy strongly denied the "false" allegations.
Yet one of the women emotionally recalled: "They raped us, kept us locked up, did not give us anything to eat... When we tried to run away, we were beaten up."
The embassy shooting that killed a British cop
One of the most high-profile cases involving diplomatic immunity in Britain is the death of PC Yvonne Fletcher - who was shot dead outside the Libyan embassy in London aged just 25.
PC Fletcher, of the Metropolitan Police, was policing an anti-Gaddafi demonstration when shots were fired from a first-floor embassy window in April 1984. She died in hospital soon after.
After an 11-day siege, during which armed police surrounded the embassy, all Libyan diplomats left the building and were given diplomatic immunity. They were swiftly deported.
In the wake of the horror, diplomatic links with Libya were brought to an immediate end.
Although the Libyan government later accepted "general responsibility" for the shooting and offered compensation to PC Fletcher's family, no one has been convicted over her murder.
The mystery murder of ambassador's wife
In one of the most shocking cases of diplomatic immunity, a Burmese diplomat suspected over his wife's killing avoided prosecution - because they were in Sri Lanka at the time.
Ambassador Sao Boonwaat reportedly confronted his spouse Shirley after discovering she was having an affair, with locals reporting hearing a series of gunshots from his residence.
Just hours later, Shirley was dead and her body was being cremated in a private Buddhist ceremony.
Although Boonwaat was initially arrested over the 1967 horror, he was released after invoking his immunity. He never faced a trial and later returned to Burma, leaving behind an unsolved murder mystery.
