British woman strangled in UK – why did US military try her case?
The murder of academic Sarah Steele by a US fighter pilot was handled by the US military justice system, raising questions about this parallel legal system in the UK.
A little-known system under which US military personnel are tried by court martial for alleged crimes committed in the UK is under growing scrutiny. One person who experienced this system is academic Sarah Steele.
Steele told Guardian investigations correspondent Harry Davies that after she was strangled one night by Jacob Wulfson, a US fighter pilot who lived in a flat in Cambridge, her case was taken up by the US military justice system. The members of the jury at her trial were all men from the air force.
“It's been really difficult having to literally sit in a room full of people in uniform, overwhelmingly older men, and have those individuals who haven't any semblance of life experience similar to my own; they were culturally different,” she said.
Davies tells Annie Kelly about this parallel justice system, how it differs from British courts, and what other crimes committed in the UK are tried under it.
