MoJ to examine case of British woman strangled by US fighter pilot, UK justice minister says

Sarah Steele has told of ‘degrading’ experience under US military justice system after assault by airman in Cambridge

A UK justice minister has described the case of a British woman strangled by an American fighter pilot as “really serious” and said the Ministry of Justice would examine it.

Sarah Steele, an academic, has come forward to speak about the “distressing and degrading” experience she had with the US military justice system after she was assaulted by the airman in Cambridge.

Jacob Wulfson assaulted Steele on UK soil in late 2023 after the pair met on a dating app and American military police quickly took over the case and the pilot was tried by US air force prosecutors.

UK law enforcement has primary jurisdiction over crimes that occur outside US bases while military personnel are off duty. Steele’s case has put a spotlight on how UK authorities cede authority to the US military.

The justice minister Jake Richards told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he would not comment on the specifics of the case but described it as “serious”.

He said: “Well, I’m only just getting the details of this case. I saw reporting in the Guardian, and indeed I know that you have covered this at 6.50am and I will be, as you’ve encouraged your listeners to, listening back after I have finished this interview.

“It’s a really serious case, really. It’s very good that it’s being raised by yourselves and others. I’m going to take it away back to the Ministry of Justice and make sure that we are looking into the details of this later.”

He added: “There are issues around military courts, whether that is in America or indeed our own, and how that interplays with our criminal courts and our civil courts. That’s always an area that we look at. I will take this specific case, and you’ll appreciate that I don’t want to say anything that might undermine what needs to be a really thorough and objective look at this case over the coming days and weeks.”

Wulfson’s court martial – details of which were revealed by the Guardian – was heard in April at the airman’s base, RAF Lakenheath in west Suffolk, the largest US military base in the UK.

The 32-year-old US captain was convicted of strangling an intimate partner but found not guilty of sexual assault. He received a sentence of six months in a corrections facility, handed to him by an all-male panel of air force officers who served as the equivalent of a jury. He was also dismissed from the air force.