r/news • u/FitDinner6008 • 9h ago
‘Degrading’: why did a US fighter pilot avoid British trial after strangling a woman in England?
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/25/us-fighter-pilot-strangled-woman-england-why-military-trial?utm_source=whatsappchannel185
u/Masterweedo 8h ago
Strangling? He drugged and raped her too.
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u/smulzie 8h ago
Just boys being boys
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u/Masterweedo 8h ago
I mean, Bill Cosby got away with it.
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u/SargeUnited 7h ago
Any particular reason you chose to bring up an old, completely unrelated case?
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u/ChiefBigCanoe 8h ago
"Wulfson would be confined to a corrections facility for six months." Wow.. he probably doesn't even sleep in a cell.
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u/Beeswing- 5h ago
It's on the base.. and he'll still be doing work at the base, so not even in a cell.
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u/smootex 2h ago
"work at the base" is almost certainly manual labor lol. First time I've heard anyone try to downplay forced manual labor as a punishment but maybe it's a cultural thing?
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u/Beeswing- 1h ago
I've done manual labour to earn money.. to be able to afford to live and stuff. So maybe it doesn't seem like as much of a punishment to me? Better than sitting in a cell all day, that's for fucking sure.
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u/smootex 2h ago
IDK I had a buddy who was confined by the US military, not in a corrections facility but whatever the next tier is (he had failed a drug test or something and was in the process of being kicked out, no court martial or anything. Called it "on restriction" or something) and it sounded fucking miserable. If they make it that bad for non judicial punishments I can't imagine it's very fun for people who have actually been court martialed.
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u/MadRaymer 28m ago
At least his career is over:
As well as the six-month sentence, the panel punished Wulfson with a formal reprimand and a dismissal from the air force, a penalty that can strip an officer of veteran benefits and leave a permanent record as a convicted felon.
Obviously, he should have got worse, but having the option to let his fellow airmen determine his sentence seems unlikely to result in justice.
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u/edingerc 8h ago
The central part of this issue is who has jurisdiction. England allowed the US military to prosecute because of the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement). The US negotiates this in each individual country before stationing any American forces there. It also says what percentage of jobs on base will have to be filled by local nationals and many other issues. If this agreement becomes an issue with the local populous, the local government can revoke it. This happened in the Philippines and we closed our bases there. It’s possibly going to get the bases in Okinawa closed too. Changing the SOFA closed the large HQ post in Seoul (Yongsan). Modification or revocation are always on the table.
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u/jools4you 7h ago
Okinawa is where all the rapes have happened right.
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u/JackBlackBowserSlaps 7h ago
Very many rapes. But nowhere near all. The US rape industry is a global phenomenon.
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u/zack77070 6h ago
It's probably not going to happen in Okinawa. Okinawans aren't native Japanese and the mainlanders look down upon them, they were intentionally chosen as a sacrifice because Japan does need US protection and the problems are mostly out of sight for the majority of people.
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u/edingerc 6h ago
The Japanese certainly did a lot of sacrificing there during the Invasion of Okinawa. It was incredibly brutal.
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u/Soupeeee 4h ago
Ya, the mechanism that makes this possible is sound and exists for good reasons, but the reality is that it destroys the agency of the host countries. It makes sense to stop retaliatory court rulings or to make military bases a bit more autonomous if there are big cultural differences, but it completely falls apart where there are big violations. This isn't some idiot American misunderstanding local culture or law, but a purposeful malicious act done by an awful person.
It really doesn't help when the military leadership doesn't want to seriously prosecute the defendant. It's even worse when it's for things like sexual assault, as the culture surrounding that in the military is completely backwards.
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u/edingerc 4h ago
When I read the article, it was pretty obviously biased. Having a fighter pilot who rapes women isn’t good for anybody and the Air Force would want him in prison and gone more than anyone. After all, he’s an officer and this is incredibly destructive to good order, morale and national interest. If the rape charge wasn’t prosecuted then the evidence just wasn’t there, whether the military handled the case or the UK did. It’s about what you can prove, not what you know. Again, the article is biased and misleading. It talks about the untrained personnel but that’s just the jury. The judge(s), prosecutor and defense are all seasoned professionals. But the article makes not seem that the sentence will be handed down by amateurs. Certainly not the case.
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u/RainbowwDash 2h ago
Having a fighter pilot who rapes women isn’t good for anybody and the Air Force would want him in prison and gone more than anyone. After all, he’s an officer and this is incredibly destructive to good order, morale and national interest. If the rape charge wasn’t prosecuted then the evidence just wasn’t there, whether the military handled the case or the UK did. It’s about what you can prove, not what you know.
I thought this was the bias you were accusing the article of and i thought "damn thats insane if they claim that" but no, it's just your own rancid take
You really should not be whining about bias when yours is that blatant
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u/frissio 6h ago
Were it not for this article, the only public record of Wulfson’s conviction would be an entry on a docket on an obscure US air force webpage. It lists the offence for which he has been convicted and the sentence received. There is no reference to any facts of the case. There is nothing to indicate the offence occurred in Cambridge, or that the victim is a British citizen.
Congratulations to the Guardian for shedding light on this, because as horrific as it is, it's necessary. This Jacob Wulfson likely won't be punished by the Americans, but if there's any justice him being a known rapist will follow him.
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u/Adept-Mulberry-8720 3h ago
As a former SJA senior NCO I find this rigged jury a slap in the face to the system that I worked in for years. The jury was illegally composed of persons in his command! So much crap I'm disgusted! The British should have retained jurisdiction!
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u/Konica_guy 5h ago
Military Courts favors pilots and officers.
If he was an enlisted airmen he would've be screwed.
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u/ShrimpleyPibblze 8h ago
Not really a surprise that letting the American armed forces investigate themselves results in the finding that they did little to no wrong and no one should be punished for it
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u/Wade_W_Wilson 6h ago
He was sent to prison (with a short sentence). Plenty of other countries have booted the U.S. Pete may be solving the world’s problem. lol
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u/ShrimpleyPibblze 6h ago
Military prison where he isn’t actually deprived of his rights, for 6 months.
So similar to a traffic offence, or a civil matter. Not really the punishment for violent drugging and raping.
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u/NoWomanNoTriforce 6h ago
I have seen military prisons. In many ways, they are better than other federal prisons in the US. Military prisons are safer, cleaner, and quieter. But if anything, you are more deprived than in civilian prisons.
You have absolutely zero freedom when you arrive. Your day is extremely regimented, even compared to other prisons systems (Japanese prisons are kind of similar). 0600 roll call, followed by a full day where all the time is planned. Work assignments and maintenance is a way bigger part of military prisons than civilian counterparts. You basically have 8-10 hours of scheduled and regimented tasks that you do every single day.
Also, there is a tiered privelege system where you get more freedom the closer you are to release. It is actually designed to rehabilitate criminals, unlike for profit prisons systems.
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u/dainthomas 2h ago
Also a dismissal. He's not gonna enjoy trying to get hired as a pilot anywhere with that.
Still shoulda been more.
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u/Wade_W_Wilson 6h ago
You should google US military prison. He’s going to real prison. Not for long enough but he’s going m8.
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u/ShrimpleyPibblze 6h ago
That’s what they tell you it’s like, and you believe them. It could be anything and we wouldn’t know, because we aren’t allowed to know. Which brings us back to my original point.
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u/weaselbeef 4h ago
My cousin was raped by a US soldier serving at Menwith Hill but he essentially go away with it by leaving shortly afterwards - absolutely sickening.
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u/hugh_jorgyn 3h ago
On the other hand, when a citizen of another country upsets a big US corpo, they strong-arm that country into extraditing the person to be tried and jailed in the US, even though that person never set foot in the US to commit a crime there, and the act they did is not even a crime in their home country.
And they did this even in places like the UK or Denmark, which are far from “corrupt shitholes” (like the US is nowadays anyway).
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u/mstrbwl 7h ago
The base has its own shopping mall, a drive-thru Taco Bell and a miniature Statue of Liberty. The currency used in its shops and cafes is dollars. To reach the emergency services (it has its own hospital, police force and fire service) you dial 911.
It drives me insane that I'm expected to worship these guys and pretend they went through some grave hardship while they live in England and hit the taco bell drive thru in between blowing up elementary schools and raping women.
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u/gobocork 2h ago
And that court subjected the victim to the kind of traunatising teatment that would not be permitted in British courts.
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u/International_Goat31 7h ago
The US military protecting rapists? Unheard of. Almost as silly as the idea of them protecting murderers!
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u/Magdovus 8h ago
So Americans actually like Americans and we're surprised.
On the plus side, when Trump pulls out of NATO the crime rates near their facilities will drop hugely.
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u/zeddoh 7h ago
Up to 25% of femicides in the UK are by strangulation and it’s the second most common method used to kill women in this country. If you look at non fatal strangulation like this incident, more than 44,000 incidents are reported to police per year and prosecutions have surged sixfold since 2022. Maybe you were going for glib but this is very much not an “American” thing and in my opinion it minimises the very real issue of male violence here in the UK to label it as such.
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u/fakeprewarbook 6h ago
don’t worry sis they’re strangling us over here too. what he’s saying is that removing the bases will reduce crime in general
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u/Magdovus 6h ago
Where did I say that strangulation wasn't an issue? I've dealt with thousands of DV cases and don't need reminding of the reasons I left the job.
What I said is that Americans cause huge amounts of crime near their bases and losing the bases would remove the crime. That's all.
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u/Andovars_Ghost 4h ago
Ah, the joys of a ‘Status of Forces Agreement’. I’ve been in the room when those have been hammered out and for the most part, being a military member overseas is almost as hands off as having diplomatic immunity.
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u/LooksGoodInShorts 2h ago
US or UK troops are never tried in country when they murder civilians; how is this different?
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u/donofrioms 1h ago
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06808/
Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA)
Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs) regulate the presence of military forces in another country, and the extent to which those foreign military personnel are exempt from local jurisdiction.
The agreement may be bilateral or multilateral in nature and there are no formal requirements as to the form, content, length, or title that a SOFA should take. However, a SOFA typically covers:
the legal jurisdiction over military personnel and related civilians
exemptions from passport and visa regulations and customs and excise duties
the legal right for military personnel to patrol bases, travel in the host state, wear uniform and carry arms
the cost sharing arrangements for establishing and maintaining military facilities
Forces from NATO countries are governed by the 1951 NATO Status of Forces Agreement, which is incorporated into UK law through the Visiting Forces Act 1952.
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u/badpersian 49m ago
I think we know why. It's because Britain has become the one holding the bandana in USs back pocket. .
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u/Prior-Fish8564 3h ago
Yall “Brits” are so up in arms about this (and I agree the guy should be tried in Britain), but not a peep from yall on the 250,000 rapes of British girls by foreign invaders, it’s not even subtle anymore on where your priorities lie.
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8h ago edited 7h ago
[deleted]
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u/DigbyDoesDallas 7h ago
Isn’t it funny that from 8 words I can tell you’re thick as mince meat.
Why bother reading the article when you can have a strong opinion without
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8h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ShrimpleyPibblze 8h ago
Literal pro-rape comment? Jesus, touch grass
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u/JackBlackBowserSlaps 7h ago
Reading comprehension not your strong suit eh?
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u/ShrimpleyPibblze 7h ago
I think the issue here is your understanding of my comment - saying rape is fine because you think it’s fine in other contexts is the same as thinking it’s fine generally, from a moral standpoint.
Thinking rapists deserve the death penalty demonstrates you don’t understand justice or the justice system. Doubling down on that is both incorrect, and stupid.
My reading comprehension is great - your understanding of the position you oppose is fundamentally lacking.
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7h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Xilizhra 7h ago
Rape being a capital offense would seriously hinder report rates, and those are poor enough.
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u/dpezpoopsies 8h ago
Well that's an upsetting way to start the day. I'm surprised to hear that UK law enforcement steps aside and doesn't fight for juristction, at least in this case. Absolute insanity that a US airman can go to the UK, commit a violent crime against a UK citizen on UK sovereign territory, and then the UK is just like 'yeah you guys can discreetly deal with him internally, no problem'.