UK police should not have let US force take over airbase trial, MoD documents show
Summary
Ministry of Defence officials said Cambridgeshire police should not have handed the investigation of US Air Force Capt Jacob Wulfson to the US military. Wulfson was tried at a US airbase tribunal rather than in an English court; a military jury convicted him of strangling Sarah Steele and acquitted him of sexual assault.Key Facts
- Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show MoD officials’ private views on the case.
- A UK-US agreement gives British police the primary right to investigate alleged crimes by US personnel stationed in the UK.
- The agreement allows US military jurisdiction in limited circumstances, including crimes committed on duty or against fellow service members or military property.
- MoD officials said the Steele case did not appear to meet the conditions for US jurisdiction.
- A Greater Manchester police officer also wrote that Cambridgeshire police had wrongly handed the investigation to US military police.
- Cambridgeshire police said they were reviewing the case with material provided by US Air Force lawyers and remained in contact with Steele.
- The government has set up a high-level inquiry into how police forces transferred investigations of serious crimes to US military police.
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