Defence Officials Say Cambridgeshire Police Wrongly Handed Pilot Case to US Military
Defence Ministry officials say, according to documents, that Cambridgeshire police wrongly handed over the case of an alleged strangulation of a British woman by a US pilot to the US military police.
Defence Ministry officials privately accused the British police force of wrongly handing over the investigation of an American fighter pilot who allegedly strangled a British woman to US military authorities. According to documents obtained by The Guardian, Cambridgeshire police allowed the US military police to quickly take control of the case of Captain Jacob Wulfson.
Wulfson was charged with sexually assaulting Sarah Steele in her flat in Cambridge. The documents show that Defence Ministry representatives consider the handover of the case to be a mistake and suggest that the police should have acted differently. According to the available materials, the decision could have affected the course of the investigation as well as which authority would ultimately hold the case.
The case raises the question of how cooperation between British and American authorities works when the accused is a member of the American armed forces. A bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States governs the conditions under which US military authorities may take over criminal proceedings on British territory. According to the documents, officials claim the police violated this agreement when handing over the case.
The charges seriously affect the life of the victim, whose name has appeared in the media, and at the same time pose a difficult question about how to protect the rights of British citizens when the case takes place on UK territory but involves a member of a foreign army. According to the available source, the documents show that internal criticism is aimed directly at the police force, not at the American side.
No information is yet available on the final outcome of the proceedings or on whether the handover of the case will be formally reviewed. According to the available materials, neither the Defence Ministry nor Cambridgeshire police have released more detailed statements on the content of the documents. The editorial team will follow further developments and the reactions of both governments and the relevant institutions.
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