MoD officials say Cambridgeshire police should 'absolutely' not have let the US military try a fighter pilot who strangled a British woman

Sarah Steele, a British academic who woke naked in a bathtub after being drugged and strangled by US Air Force Captain Jacob Wulfson at his Cambridge flat in December 2023, was never consulted before Cambridgeshire police handed the case to US military investigators. MoD officials in Washington wrote on July 8 that the case "does not, on the surface, appear to meet the bar" for transfer, noting the agreement covers only offences committed on duty or against fellow US personnel or property. The Ministry of Justice has now announced it will examine the case.

An all-male panel of fellow officers tried Wulfson at RAF Lakenheath, acquitting him of sexual assault and handing down a sentence of just six months in a military correction facility.

Steele said she was treated "incredibly aggressively" by the defence team and described the experience as feeling like the accused rather than the victim within the US military system.

Had the case reached a British crown court, Wulfson could have faced up to five years for non-fatal strangulation, sentenced by a judge before a mixed civilian jury in open court.