US fighter pilot avoids British trial after raping a woman in England

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/25/us-fighter-pilot-strangled-woman-england-why-military-trial

by Alien1Being • 28 days ago

21 10 28 days ago

theguardian.com

rbanffy2• 28 days ago

I believe they forgot to mention she, AFAIK, has a doctorate.

benj1113• 28 days ago

Is that relevant?

rbanffy2• 27 days ago

I think it makes it painting her as someone trying to take advantage of the rapist even more ridiculous.

benj1113• 28 days ago

There seems to be missing explanations here. The CPS are the ones to decide where to pursue a case, not the police.

But then there's a major issue of the judiciary and police not really doing their jobs properly, so it doesn't surprise me that this happened.

pseudohadamard• 27 days ago

Even under UK law and the UK court system their conviction rate is appallingly low, https://victimscommissioner.org.uk/news/the-distressing-trut..., to the point where the victims commissioner described rape as effectively decriminalised, https://victimscommissioner.org.uk/document/annual-report-of.... So he may have got an even lighter or no sentence if tried under UK jurisdiction.

everfrustrated• 27 days ago

If he was in the military I presume military police has some jurisdiction.

I would also presume there's some mutual law where if a foreign military member is on another countries soil (if you're in the military you can't just go on holiday to a foreign country without extra paperwork) that allows counties to retain their military courts jurisdiction even on foreign soil.

That doesn't mean he gets off - just that the trial would be under US MP law. To be honest, the consequences of which would be higher for him than under UK law.

jfengel• 27 days ago

They already held the court martial. He got six months in prison. Way less than he'd have gotten under UK law.

zeristor• 26 days ago

Hundreds of years ago there used to be ecclesiastical courts in England.

They were treated differently from those not of the church.

This case just happens to remind me.

pyuser583• 24 days ago

Does the UK have the power to try him also? If this took place in the states, he could be tried in both military and civilian courts.

Also the article seems to imply the UK does better at trying rape than the US military. I doubt that.

US fighter pilot avoids British trial after raping a woman in England

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