A British woman gets strangled in her own country by an off-duty American fighter pilot. You would think the local police would handle it, the Crown Prosecution Service would prosecute it, and a British court would decide the verdict.
That is not what happened.
Instead, the local police stepped aside. The case went entirely to the American military. The trial took place on a US airbase behind closed doors, overseen by an all-male panel of American military officers.
Now, British Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy is demanding answers from Washington. This case involves Captain Jacob Wulfson, an F-35 pilot who was convicted at a court-martial at RAF Lakenheath in April 2026 for strangling British academic Sarah Steele. The incident took place late in 2023 at his apartment in Cambridge while he was off duty.
This growing diplomatic friction exposes a quiet truth. There are parts of the UK where British law takes a back seat to American military sovereignty.
The Secret Jurisdictions on British Soil
Most people assume that if a crime happens on British soil, British law applies. It turns out that is a massive misconception. Over 12,000 US military personnel live and work across at least 15 airbases and facilities in the UK. Under long-standing, often obscure agreements, British authorities frequently hand over their legal rights to the US military.
Technically, the Visiting Forces Act and related agreements give UK police primary responsibility for investigating crimes that happen outside US bases when military personnel are off duty. But in practice, things look very different. The US military actively works to maximize its legal jurisdiction. British police forces regularly allow them to take over.
In this instance, Cambridgeshire police openly ceded control. They handed the investigation straight to the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations. The Crown Prosecution Service never even looked at the files.
For the victim, Sarah Steele, this meant navigating a foreign legal system inside her own country. She described the experience as degrading and aggressive. During the airbase court martial, she faced hostile questioning from military defense lawyers. It felt like she was the one on trial. The military panel even listened to mitigation arguments about Wulfson’s "enemies killed in action" count to lessen his punishment.
The pilot was acquitted of sexual assault but convicted of domestic strangulation. His sentence? Six months in a military correction facility and dismissal from the service.
A Broken System Facing Real Political Heat
The political fallout in Westminster is gathering pace. David Lammy told parliament that his officials are working across government departments to challenge the US over the facts. The government has a public goal to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade. Letting a foreign military run its own courtroom for a violent crime committed in a British city directly undermines that mission.
Politicians from across the political spectrum are pushing for systemic change. Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Jess Brown-Fuller argued that victims of crimes on English soil must see justice served in British courts. Even Conservative MPs, like Nick Timothy representing West Suffolk where the airbase sits, have demanded to know why British police walked away from a clear domestic assault case.
This is not an isolated incident. The mother of Harry Dunn, the teenager killed outside a US military base in 2019 by an American diplomat's wife who then fled the country, has publicly backed Steele. The underlying problem is structural. When American personnel commit offenses, the system defaults to protecting the military chain of command rather than protecting local victims.
The Immediate Steps Needed to Protect Victims
Fixing a diplomatic arrangement that has existed for decades is incredibly difficult, but there are clear operational adjustments that can happen right now.
- Mandatory CPS Review: The Home Office must strip local police forces of the power to independently cede jurisdiction to foreign militaries. Any crime involving a civilian victim on British soil must require a formal review by the Crown Prosecution Service before the US military can intervene.
- Transparent Legal Frameworks: Victims caught in these jurisdictional gray zones need immediate access to independent British legal advice and advocacy. They should not be forced to rely on the opaque procedures of a foreign military justice system.
- Public Auditing of Base Crimes: The Ministry of Justice needs to publish full data on how many crimes committed by foreign service members off base are handed over to external authorities each year.
The British government cannot protect its citizens while quietly outsourcing its justice system to a foreign ally. Lammy's upcoming talks with the US government will show whether the UK is willing to stand up for its own legal sovereignty, or if military convenience will continue to win out over local justice.
