Cambridgeshire Police incorrectly allowed United States military authorities to take over the investigation of an American air force captain accused of strangling a British woman, internal Ministry of Defence documents show, according to a report by The Guardian.
The decision to transfer the case involving Capt. Jacob Wulfson prevented an English criminal court from trying the matter. Instead, a military tribunal held on an American air base in neighboring Suffolk prosecuted Wulfson, resulting in a conviction for strangling an intimate partner and an acquittal on a separate charge of sexual assault.
Internal Friction Over Jurisdictional Handover
Ministry of Defence officials privately criticized the local police force’s handling of the matter in a batch of documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act. Officials maintained that the case fell outside the narrow parameters of a decades-old agreement governing visiting forces in the United Kingdom.
Under the terms of that agreement, British police retain primary jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed by American personnel unless specific conditions are met. Those conditions require that the offenses occur while the service member is on duty, or that they target another member of the armed forces or military property.
In a July 8 memo, MoD officials stationed in Washington noted that the allegations against Wulfson failed to clear that threshold. An email sent by officials four days earlier described the decision-making process as starkly contradictory to the explicit terms of the treaty. An unidentified Greater Manchester Police officer also communicated to the MoD on July 6 that Cambridgeshire Police had erred in surrendering the case.
Wulfson Prosecution and the Court-Martial Verdict
The underlying incident occurred in December 2023 inside Wulfson’s Cambridge flat after the off-duty pilot and Sarah Steele connected on the Tinder dating application. Steele subsequently testified at a court-martial held in April at the RAF Lakenheath base, describing her experience as degrading and distressing under aggressive questioning by defense counsel.
An all-male jury composed of Wulfson’s fellow air force officers delivered the verdict and determined his sentence. Wulfson received a conviction for intimate partner strangulation while being cleared of sexual assault, leading to his dismissal from the US Air Force and a six-month confinement sentence served at a military jail on the Lakenheath base.
The disclosure in June drew immediate condemnation from Downing Street, which characterized the exclusion of UK authorities from the prosecution as deeply distressing. Consequently, the government initiated a high-level inquiry involving the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, Foreign Office, and police chiefs to examine why serious criminal investigations involving off-duty American personnel are routinely transferred to US military police.
Broader Scrutiny of Visiting Force Cases
The cross-government review is currently scrutinizing several parallel cases uncovered by The Guardian this year. These include the prosecution of Tyrion Davis, who faced allegations of raping two women in Suffolk before a court-martial convicted him of a single sexual assault charge while clearing him of 10 additional counts.
Another case involves Hannes Marschalek, who negotiated a plea bargain at a court-martial after allegedly exposing himself to a 16-year-old girl and four young women in Littleport, Cambridgeshire. Marschalek subsequently secured a successful appeal in a US military court that quashed his conviction on technical grounds, a ruling that remains subject to ongoing legal challenges.
More than 12,000 US military personnel currently operate across at least 15 bases and facilities throughout the UK, with the largest concentrations situated at Lakenheath and Mildenhall in Suffolk. As the government inquiry continues, Cambridgeshire Police stated they are conducting a comprehensive review of the Wulfson investigation alongside US Air Force legal representatives while maintaining engagement with the victim.
