Cambridgeshire police face questions over decision to hand sexual assault case to US military

A police force in England is facing mounting questions over its decision to allow the US military to prosecute the case of a woman who was strangled by an American fighter pilot in his apartment in Cambridge city centre.Cambridgeshire police has acknowledged that in the days after the assault in 2023, it allowed the US military to take “investigative primacy” in the case, despite the fact the crime took place within the force’s territory and when the pilot was off duty.The force appears to have accepted a claim by US military investigators that the victim, Sarah Steele, “did not want to be contacted” by local police about the case. However, Steele, 42, has insisted this claim by US military was false.Sarah Steele: ‘I absolutely did not tell anyone then that I didn’t wish to speak to the British police.’ Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The GuardianThe decision by Cambridgeshire police to cede responsibility to the US military paved the way for the pilot, Capt Jacob Wulfson, to avoid British justice. Instead, he was tried in a military tribunal at RAF Lakenheath, a US airbase in neighbouring Suffolk.Wulfson was convicted at the court martial in April 2026 of strangling Steele on their first in-person encounter after the pair met on a dating app. He was acquitted of penetrating her without her consent and doing so knowing she had been drugged, an offence that was charged as sexual assault and “aggravated sexual contact”.In an English court, an offence of sexual penetration without consent would probably have been categorised as rape.The jury in the court martial consisted of an all-male panel of Wulfson’s fellow air force officers, all stationed at the same base as him. These men also decided his sentence: six months in a correctional facility.Wulfson (centre) with colleagues at the Dubai airshow in UAE in 2019. Photograph: Tech Sgt Joseph Pick/US Air Forces CentralLast week, Steele described her “degrading and distressing” experience of going through the US military justice system as a victim. She believes that the system, which was unfamiliar to her, “picked me up, chewed me out”.The Guardian’s investigation into the case, part of a series of reports into British crimes prosecuted on US military bases, prompted widespread concern. The UK government has pledged to look into the case, which the prime minister’s spokesperson said was “deeply distressing”.The decision by Cambridgeshire police to relinquish the case to the US military in the days after the assault, in early December 2023, is now under the spotlight.A US Air Force (USAF) spokesperson said it “negotiated jurisdiction” over the case with the local police. “Cambridgeshire constabulary agreed to let the USAF take the lead and was an active partner throughout the investigation,” they added.In a statement to The Guardian, the Cambridgeshire force confirmed it had been “agreed” that the USAF “would take investigative primacy, with support provided by Cambridgeshire constabulary as required”.“At that stage, information shared by the USAF indicated that the victim did not wish to be contacted by Cambridgeshire constabulary and that key investigative steps had already been undertaken by USAF,” the statement said. “The constabulary’s approach was therefore guided by a victim-led consideration.”However, Steele disputed that Cambridgeshire police’s approach was “victim-led”, saying they did not contact her in December 2023 or consult her before deciding to hand the investigation to the US Air Force.“I absolutely did not tell anyone then that I didn’t wish to speak to the British police,” she said. In the days after the assault, she said, she had been trying to decide how she wanted the situation to be handled but the military investigation was “moving rapidly”.RAF Lakenheath. Photograph: Chris Radburn/AFP/Getty ImagesUK law enforcement should have primary responsibility for investigating crimes such as Wulfson’s, which take place outside US bases when personnel are off duty.However, in practice the US appears to be seeking to maximise its jurisdiction, with British forces ceding responsibility for investigating and prosecuting such crimes.Steele, an academic, began talking to Wulfson on Tinder in September 2023. After several months of chatting online, they met at his flat on 1 December 2023. Wulfson was stationed at RAF Lakenheath, the largest US airbase in the UK, where he flew F-35 jets.An F-35 at RAF Lakenheath. Photograph: LondonSpotter42/AlamyWithin 48 hours of the incident in his apartment, Steele’s friend, who was a US Air Force employee, took her to a sexual assault referral clinic and then, on 3 December, to military police officers on a nearby US base.Steele said that at this early stage – when she was sleep-deprived and in shock – she was still contemplating whether she wanted Cambridgeshire police or the US Air Force’s office of special investigations (OSI) to investigate.She believed the meeting with OSI would be a preliminary conversation, but found herself being formally interviewed by its officers.Within hours of the interview, the OSI investigators appear to have moved to take control of the case, arresting Wulfson and notifying Cambridgeshire police they would be handling the matter.The Conservative MP for West Suffolk, where RAF Lakenheath is based, has written to the justice secretary to demand answers. Photograph: Martin Pope/Sopa Images/ShutterstockSteele said that, days later, she was informed by the US Air Force that Cambridgeshire police had ceded responsibility to OSI. Once this happened, Steele said, it felt like “the train left the station”.Several months later, in February 2024, Cambridgeshire police did have an interaction with Steele after a disturbance at her apartment involving Wulfson, during which they had argued. During a subsequent welfare check, Cambridgeshire police spoke to her about the assault investigation.In its statement, Cambridgeshire police said: “Following a welfare visit in February 2024, the victim directly confirmed to Cambridgeshire constabulary officers that she wished the matter to remain under the investigation of the USAF.”Steele recalled that by that point, which was almost three months after the incident, with the investigation well under way, she had been resigned to the US military taking on the case. She had been concerned, she said, that if USAF handed the case back the investigation would start again from scratch.She also feared Wulfson might leave the UK if the American military dropped the case, citing the case of Anne Sacoolas, a US intelligence official who fled the UK after killing 19-year-old motorcyclist Harry Dunn in 2019. Sacoolas pleaded guilty in a UK court via video link to dangerous driving after a three-year justice campaign.For Cambridgeshire police, the key question is why its initial decision, in the days after the assault, was to give up the case to the US military.Steele is calling for greater scrutiny of how UK police forces handle cases involving US military personnel, in particular when their victim is a British citizen or unconnected to military activities.The police, she said, should be required to formally record decisions to hand over cases to the US, and seek the views of the victims before doing so.Cambridgeshire constabulary’s actions in December 2023 appear to contradict a policy prepared earlier that year by nearby police forces in Norfolk and Suffolk, where several US airbases are located.According to the policy, the police forces said they would “not usually waive jurisdiction” in favour of the US when “damage has been caused to the person or property of a United Kingdom citizen”.The Labour MP Jess Phillips has pledged to change the system. “No UK victim should be handed over to the US military for a crime committed on UK soil unless that is exactly what they want to happen,” she wrote in The Guardian.Nick Timothy, the Conservative MP for West Suffolk, where RAF Lakenheath is based, has written to the justice secretary to demand answers. “This case should have been fully investigated by the English police and prosecuted in our courts,” he wrote. “I ask you urgently to review what happened in this case, confirm who decided to relinquish UK jurisdiction, and ensure that justice is served.”