US airman accused of ‘spree’ of rapes on sleeping women avoided UK courts | US military

A. A US airman accused of a series of rapes and sexual assaults in England, drugging some women and breaking into the homes of others, managed to escape British justice after local police handed over part of the case to the American military.

Two British women went to Suffolk police in August 2019 to claim James Loubeau and another US airman drugged and raped them after meeting them at a nightclub in the local market town of Bury St Edmunds.

Less than two weeks later, Suffolk police allowed the U.S. air force to take responsibility for investigating two alleged rape cases..

It has since been revealed that Loubeau, 38, allegedly attacked a total of six women in East Anglia over a four-month period in 2019, in what US prosecutors described as a “frightening and dangerous” pattern of attacks.

In July last year, a court in Miami, Florida, found Loubeau guilty of sexually assaulting one of the women at a military base in England. Prosecutors in the case said the airman believed he could attack women “with impunity.” HE sentenced to five years in prison and will be monitored for twenty years after his release due to the risk he poses to the public.

Loubeau eventually being brought to justice for his alleged crimes in a court 4,000 miles away will put pressure on Suffolk police to explain their decision to cede jurisdiction in the case. Doing so is becoming less and less common.

‘Inside and outside consciousness’

Three of Loubeau’s alleged victims were female military personnel who served with him at RAF Mildenhall, an American military base in Suffolk. Under the terms of a 1951 agreement between the United States and Britain, the American military can assume responsibility for investigating alleged crimes if the victim is another member of the U.S. armed forces. They also have jurisdiction over crimes that allegedly occurred while a member of their military was on duty.

In almost all other cases, the local British police force has primary responsibility for investigating crimes on UK territory.

Three of Loubeau’s victims were British and accused him of attacking them while off duty. These include two women who first met him and his friend, another US airman, at a nightclub in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

Court documents allege that the American airmen offered to give the women a ride home, but instead they went to Mildenhall base, where they went to Loubeau’s bedroom. One of the women said she was given wine and Disaronno liqueur in plastic glasses.

The next thing they remembered was waking up naked and confused around 6:30 a.m., according to the documents. Neither woman knew how or why they fainted, and both believed they had been raped, according to the documents.

The women reported Loubeau and the second U.S. airman to Suffolk police on Aug. 3, 2019, prompting the police to launch an investigation. Just 11 days later, on August 14, the force handed over responsibility for investigating the men to U.S. military police.

The military’s investigation appears to include not only the two British women but also three others who say they were assaulted during Loubeau’s alleged “spree” between April and July 2019.

The case resulted in a military trial, or court-martial, for Loubeau, who held the rank of airman first class. The report focused on allegations made by one of the six victims, an American soldier who said he sexually assaulted her after entering her bedroom on base in June 2019. She claimed that she was aroused by Loubeau, who had sex with her while she was “unconscious”.

The lack of transparency in the US military justice system means that there is no public record of what happened at the court-martial; however, such trials often also include a jury panel composed of other American service personnel. The incident that took place at the base in 2020 resulted in Loubeau’s acquittal.

Although the court-martial found him not guilty, Loubeau, who worked as an apprentice with the 100th Logistics Readiness vehicle maintenance squadron in Mildenhall, was discharged from the U.S. air force in 2020 after three years of service.

He was dismissed “under honourable conditions” for a series of “minor infractions”. These included sexually propositioning drunk women, using derogatory language towards women and stealing jewelery from a store at RAF Lakenheath, another US air base. He returned to the US in 2021 and lived with relatives in Miami.

Loubeau was convicted in 2025, following an investigation by the FBI, based on allegations from one of six 19-year-old American women who served with him at Mildenhall.

DNA breakthrough

It’s unclear what prompted the FBI to launch the investigation, but the federal agency made a breakthrough by linking Loubeau to DNA found on his victim, whom he met at a bar on base in May 2019.

Later that night, after the 19-year-old girl returned to her locked bedroom, Loubeau surreptitiously gained entry by sliding his hand through the open window and unlatching her door inches away. He was awakened at 2.30 in the morning by a hooded Loubeau. Her victim “thought she was being raped,” according to court documents.

Prosecutors secured his conviction for sexual assault under an American law that can be used to prosecute American armed forces and their contractors for crimes committed outside the United States.

They argued that Loubeau would likely attack women again when he was released from prison. The judge decided that after completing his prison sentence, he would be kept under supervision for twenty years to prevent him from committing further sexual assaults.

In documents filed in court, prosecutors cited other assault allegations in England to claim Loubeau preyed on sleeping or drunk women in a “disturbing, frightening and dangerous” way.

In the documents, prosecutors said he went on an “attacking spree” in Suffolk in 2019, adding that his “brazen behavior reflected his belief that he could act with impunity.”

Among the cases cited by US prosecutors was the third British woman Loubeau was accused of assaulting.

Less is known about his case, although documents allege Loubeau attacked him at his home in Cambridgeshire in April 2019. A year later, he identified Loubeau and reported the alleged attack to Cambridgeshire police.

Cambridgeshire police said they decided there was insufficient evidence to lay charges, adding that the victim did not support a prosecution. The force said it had not handed over responsibility for investigating the allegation to US military police, although a spokesman added that police were “working with the US air force as part of the investigation and assistance was provided”.

The Guardian contacted the US air force military police with questions about the Loubeau case and why the US is claiming jurisdiction over rape allegations for which a British force should have primary responsibility.

USAF police said that as an investigative agency, it could not answer questions about “jurisdiction, charges, and decisions regarding legal proceedings.” The statement said, “Questions regarding these issues should be directed to the relevant authorities. In this case, Suffolk police need to be better equipped.”

Suffolk police refused to answer detailed questions about the case or explain their decision to give up jurisdiction less than two weeks after two British women said Loubeau raped them. In a statement, the force said: “We are in the process of reviewing the decision-making process around the delegation of priority to the US air force and case transfer practices more generally.”

This review is understood to have been launched as a result of the Guardian’s ongoing investigation into crimes committed by US personnel on British soil.

In recent weeks, the Guardian has reported on the cases of US fighter pilot Jacob Wulfson, who strangled a British woman in his Cambridge flat; American airman Tyrion Davis, who sexually assaulted a British woman in Brandon, Suffolk; and US airman Hannes Marschalek, who allegedly exposed himself to a 16-year-old girl and four young women in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, in 2022.

In all cases, US airmen avoided the British justice system after the local police force chose to cede control of the investigation to American military police.

Loubeau’s attorney, who represented him at the Miami hearing, declined to comment.

Additional reporting: Sophie Sullivan