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Minutes after fleeing the home of an American airman, Rebecca called ۹۹۹ in tears to report that he had raped her. She recalls vomiting at a police station in Suffolk as she described being repeatedly and violently attacked.
Officers took her to a sexual assault referral centre for an intimate examination. There, a nurse measured and photographed her injuries, including bruises and bite marks on her neck.
“I didn’t feel like I was a human,” said Rebecca, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. “I know that sounds really extreme but I genuinely looked in the mirror and I didn’t recognise myself.”
Over the following days, Rebecca, then a ۲۰-year-old British midwifery student, was interviewed by local police detectives. She handed over her phone and laptop as evidence. She was given a crime reference number and appointed an independent sexual violence adviser (ISVA) to help with the legal process she assumed would take place under the normal rules for prosecutions in England and Wales.
Yet normal rules do not always apply to men like Tyrion Davis, who was then a ۲۲-year-old senior airman in the US air force based at RAF Lakenheath, an American military base. Rebecca alleged that he raped her in June ۲۰۲۰, while he was off-duty and at his home in Brandon, a small market town in rural Suffolk.
Twenty days after Suffolk police commenced their investigation, the force decided to cede control of the case to the US air force. That decision meant Davis would avoid the British justice system, and a possible trial before a jury in a British crown court. Instead, he was prosecuted in a military trial, or court martial, at RAF Lakenheath.
By the time of the trial, in June ۲۰۲۲, the case against Davis had expanded to include similar sexual assault allegations from a second woman: his estranged wife, Emily. Davis insisted his sexual encounters with Rebecca and Emily, both British women, had been consensual.
However, he was convicted of sexually assaulting Emily, whose name has also been changed to protect her identity, “by penetrating her vulva with his penis, without her consent”.
It is unclear why the offence, which involved non-consensual penetrative sex, was prosecuted by the military as sexual assault. In the criminal justice system for England and Wales, such an offence is likely to have been charged as rape.
Davis was acquitted of ۱۰ further counts of sexual assault and abusive sexual contact, and two counts of assault, against Rebecca and Emily.
In interviews with the Guardian, Rebecca and Emily spoke of their horrific allegations against the US airman, and their traumatic experience of giving evidence against him at the court martial.
Rebecca, who now works for the NHS, said she had discovered about a week before the court martial that the jury panel would be composed entirely of Davis’s military peers, rather than members of the public. “It’s like, if I did something wrong outside of work, having all of my nursing colleagues being on the jury,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
‘I thought I was going to die there’
Rebecca met Davis when she was ۱۸, four months after he had arrived at RAF Lakenheath in June ۲۰۱۷. He was an aircraft metals craftsman in the ۴۸th equipment maintenance squadron. In February ۲۰۱۸, Rebecca introduced Davis, who is originally from California, to her friend Emily. Ten months later, Davis, then ۲۰, and Emily, then ۱۸, got married.
The marriage was short-lived and ended when Emily left him in July ۲۰۱۹. However, Rebecca had considered Davis a good friend. He had met her family, stayed at their home and joined them for roast dinners.
In June ۲۰۲۰, at the end of the first Covid lockdown, Rebecca asked Davis if she could stay in one of the spare rooms at his home in Brandon, which is close to the airbase. Her flatmates had moved out of her university accommodation and the wifi had stopped working properly.
Rebecca alleged that Davis smoked marijuana before attacking her within hours of her arrival on ۸ June ۲۰۲۰. “I thought I was going to die there,” Rebecca recalled. She said Davis had pulled her on to his bed before assaulting her. “He bit me. I couldn’t see anything because it was just pitch-black and I didn’t know the layout of the room. I just kind of froze. Everything happened. It was rape, sexual assault and the only time he stopped is when I vomited everywhere from stress.”
Rebecca alleged Davis then pushed her into the shower and attempted to assault her before she escaped to a downstairs bedroom, where she barricaded the door shut with her suitcases.
The full horror of the alleged attack, she said, became clear when she saw bruises and bite marks on her neck in the morning and realised “that wasn’t a bad dream”.
Rebecca tried the front door but found it was locked. She messaged a friend to say she needed somewhere safe to stay, while considering jumping out of a window to escape. Then, she alleged, Davis burst into the bedroom and raped her again.
“I begged him to let me go: ‘Unlock the door, please. Just let me go.’ And eventually he did. I was absolutely hysterical,” she said. “He left the room and I was like: ‘What do I grab?’ I launched all my stuff in the car and started driving.”
In the car, Rebecca said, she phoned a friend who encouraged her to call ۹۹۹. A court martial document described Rebecca as “audibly distraught and overcome with emotion” in the call. The body camera footage of the Suffolk police officer who met her a short time later showed that she was “visibly shaken, agitated, at some points crying, and appear[ed] to be under extreme stress”, the document said.
At a local police station, an officer told Rebecca they had run out of the rape kits used to preserve evidence, owing to a spate of reported assaults. She was taken to the Harbour Centre, a sexual assault referral centre in Norwich, where intimate photographs and swabs were taken and her injuries documented.
Rebecca surrendered her clothing as evidence and left wearing clothes donated by a charity. She returned to the centre a few days later for a formal interview, this time by an officer from Norfolk police, although Suffolk police remained the investigating force. Days later, however, that changed.
The promise of a faster trial
On ۱۵ June ۲۰۲۰, six days after Rebecca’s initial report, she said she received an unexpected phone call from Suffolk police. An officer informed her that the Americans had made a request for the US military to take jurisdiction over the case, and that the transfer would be a quicker route to justice.
Rebecca said a similar argument was made by her ISVA, a specialist who provides advice and support to victims in England and Wales.
“She told me the CPS might not take the case,” Rebecca said of the ISVA. “If they do take it, it’s a minimum of two years until the court case. She then said: ‘The Americans, they want to take it on. They’ve said it’ll be six months [for a court martial]. Which one would you prefer?’”
In the traumatic days after the alleged attack, the promise of a faster trial was compelling. Rebecca had already put her midwifery degree on hold while trying to navigate a complex legal system.
She was told there was a two-year waiting list for mental health services on the NHS, but that the Americans could offer her support more quickly. Rebecca also recalls her ISVA giving her statistics about how few rape cases are prosecuted by the CPS – and how long they take to get to court.
“In my head, I was thinking: ‘OK, if I go the American route, it’s quicker, I can continue midwifery and also they’re going to give me support,’” she said.
Rebecca said she was also warned by her ISVA that Davis could try to leave the UK before facing trial in an English court. Nine months earlier, Anne Sacoolas, an American intelligence official, had fled the UK after killing a ۱۹-year-old motorcyclist, Harry Dunn, in a road collision outside the US military base RAF Croughton.
Rebecca agreed to the transfer and the case was formally handed over to the Americans on ۲۹ June ۲۰۲۰. It was only later, she said, that she realised the full implications of that decision.
The promised six-month timetable for a court martial stretched to two years, forcing Rebecca to drop out of her midwifery degree.
Unlike the hundreds of rape and sexual offence victims who give evidence in UK courts each year, Rebecca could not testify from behind a screen. She would have to do so in a small courtroom at the military base. “So all the questioning would be in front of him,” she said.
Rebecca did not meet her US air force-appointed lawyer until weeks before the trial, when she was invited to the airbase to see the layout of the courtroom. Days before she was due to testify, Rebecca received advice about how she should approach the court martial.
“My legal representation contacted me and said: ‘What are you wearing?’” she recalled. “And I was like: ‘I don’t know, probably just a suit or something.’ ‘Whatever you do, don’t wear red lipstick,’ is what I was told. ‘Don’t wear anything red. Wear black, white; if anything, wear white because it’s more angelic.’”
Rebecca added: “That’s always stuck with me and my family. Why does it matter what you’re wearing? But it obviously did.”
When it came to her court martial evidence, Rebecca, who is shortsighted, took off her glasses so she didn’t have to see Davis, who was metres away.
“It was probably one of the worst days of my life,” she said. “Because he was right there and I thought: if I can’t see, I’m safer. I know it sounds stupid, but I just took off my glasses and answered questions.”
Much of the trial was a blur for Rebecca, who, despite the assurances she had received, had been unable to get any mental health support. “The only way I was getting through every day was trying to ignore exactly what had happened because it had such a massive mental impact on me. And in the court case, I feel like I froze because, in my head, he didn’t exist any more for my own protection, and him being there, I just instantly went into ‘fight, flight, freeze’ and I just froze.”
She added: “In the courtroom, my body just kind of shut down. I think I answered yes, no, and just tried my hardest. But because he was there, I was in shock.”
‘He kept trying. I kept saying no’
Emily’s experience on the witness stand was not dissimilar. Unlike Rebecca, who initially dealt with Suffolk police after they opened an investigation following her ۹۹۹ call, Emily’s allegations against her estranged husband were handled entirely by the US military.
Emily reported her allegations to the US air force’s office of special investigations in September ۲۰۲۰, after Rebecca had got in touch to explain that investigators were looking into her allegation of rape against Davis.
Emily accused Davis of sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions in ۲۰۱۸ and ۲۰۱۹, including by allegedly forcing her into sexual acts in the presence of others. She also alleged she had once become afraid for her life after Davis, during consensual sex, strangled her until she began to lose consciousness and her vision became blurry. However, it was another allegation that proved pivotal during the court martial.
One night in July ۲۰۱۹, while they were in bed together, Davis wanted to have sex but Emily told him she did not. She pushed his hand away, told him “no” several times and turned her body away from him. “I had said no because I didn’t want to,” she recalled. “He cuddled up behind me, and I was like: ‘Go away.’ He kept trying, I kept saying no. In the end he just rolled me on to my back and completely ignored me. It was awful. I was crying. He just didn’t give a fuck.”
Davis penetrated her vagina in what she said was a “rough” assault that left her bleeding, struggling to walk and in pain for days. Within a week, she had ended their relationship and moved back in with her parents.
Facebook messages disclosed during the trial showed that Emily told Davis on ۱۰ August ۲۰۱۹ that she couldn’t get over what had happened, adding: “I said ‘stop’ more than once.”
Davis replied: “I never said you didn’t say stop. I said you didn’t say it like you meant it … You say stop alot [sic]. And I’m not blaming you for what I did.” In a lengthy message, Emily described the impact of the assault, saying: “I am still getting nightmares from it … Me saying no, actually meant no.”
Publicly available documents about the court martial provide only a partial snapshot of the case, and do not include a full account of the US airman’s defence, including in relation to the accounts over which he was acquitted.
One document shows his lawyers argued that Davis “maintained his relationships with [Emily] and [Rebecca] consisted of consensual encounters”. They accused Emily of telling “repeated lies”, and argued that her testimony showed “a pattern of a young married couple exploring their sexual boundaries”.
While Emily was often initially “uninterested” or “averse” to sexual activities, the lawyers argued, she “eventually agreed to participate”.
Court martials on US military bases can be hard for the public to access, requiring special permission to get into fortified bases. There are no publicly available transcripts of proceedings, and therefore no records of the cross-examinations Emily and Rebecca were subjected to.
Emily recalls giving evidence over two days, when she was five months pregnant, as very intense and invasive. “I was so stressed and emotionally distraught,” she said.
Court documents show Davis’s lawyers argued Emily had fabricated the allegations after returning from a holiday to Ibiza in July ۲۰۱۹, when she slept with one of Davis’s US air force colleagues. His lawyers claimed Emily wanted “to change the narrative from unfaithful wife to victim of sex assault” because it seemed like a “more palatable” reason to leave her husband.
Emily admitted during cross-examination that she had initially lied about the affair, but said it did not change the fact that Davis had assaulted her. “The only reason that it was even brought up [was] because they were trying to call into question my character,” she said. “But even if I had been having an affair the whole time, it wouldn’t have justified what he did.”
Court papers reveal that Emily was also questioned more than ۱۵ times about the fact that she had reported the alleged assaults only after Rebecca got in touch with her. Emily told the Guardian she had feared she would not be believed.
“It took me a while to realise that what he was doing actually wasn’t right. And then at that point, I felt like it had been too long,” she said. “It was my word against his and no one would believe me.”
‘He got a slap on the wrist’
Emily’s fear – that her attacker’s word would be believed over hers – will be familiar to many victims of sexual violence. In her case, there was the added complication that the jury comprised his fellow airmen on the base.
For the most part, the all-military panel sided with Davis over the two women. He was acquitted of six counts of sexual assault and one count of assault relating to Rebecca’s allegations. He was also acquitted of four further sexual assaults and one assault against Emily. Davis was found not guilty of one charge of wrongful use of marijuana.
Davis was convicted of one count of sexual assault under article ۱۲۰ of the US uniform code of military justice. It was the charge described not as rape, but as “penetrating her vulva with his penis without her consent”. And it related to the incident in which he subsequently admitted, in a Facebook message: “I never said you didn’t say stop.”
The Davis case has echoes of that involving Capt Jacob Wulfson, a US fighter pilot, also based at RAF Lakenheath, who avoided the British justice system after strangling a woman in his apartment in Cambridge city centre in ۲۰۲۳. He was acquitted of a separate charge of sexual assault, relating to an allegation of non-consensual penetration that, as in the Davis case, was not charged as rape.
Wulfson’s victim, Sarah Steele, an academic at Cambridge University, spoke to the Guardian last month about her “degrading” ordeal at the court martial, prompting widespread cross-party concern in Westminster. David Lammy, the UK’s deputy prime minister, has asked the US government to give a full account of what happened in Steele’s case.
However, the Guardian’s continuing investigation into British crimes prosecuted in US military tribunals suggests her case is far from an isolated one, amid mounting questions over the fairness of the US court martial system.
Had it not been for the Facebook message in which Davis admitted to non-consensual sex, Emily believes he “wouldn’t have even been convicted of anything”. “It was my word against his,” she said. “The only reason he got convicted of that one [charge] is because he admitted to it in text messages, so they could prove it.”
For Rebecca, the conviction over Emily’s complaint brought some measure of relief, despite the acquittals in relation to her own allegations. “At the time of the court case, my mental health was on the floor,” she said. “I think that’s the lowest I’ve ever been in my life. I’ve come to accept whatever happened, happened. I did my part. I tried to protect other people.”
Davis later brought an appeal, but in January ۲۰۲۴, a US air force appeals court upheld the conviction.
Contacted by the Guardian about the Davis prosecution, a spokesperson for the US air force’s (USAF) military police said that, as an investigative agency, it could not respond to questions about “decisions around jurisdiction, charges, and legal proceedings”.
“Questions regarding these issues should be directed to the proper authorities. In this case, the local police should be better equipped to respond,” they said.
Suffolk police said in a statement that jurisdiction over prosecuting Davis was transferred to USAF with the “agreement of the victim” [Rebecca], following a discussion with her, an independent adviser, and the air force’s legal services.
Suffolk police did not directly respond to the Rebecca’s complaint that she was not fully informed of the implications of her decision. “We are committed to ensuring our actions continue to be led by the wishes and best interest of victims and are keen to understand examples where this is not the experience of victims,” the statement added.
A spokesperson for Norfolk police, which employs the ISVA who advised Rebecca, did address her complaint. “We recognise the victim’s lived experience and are sorry she feels she was not fully informed about aspects of the military court process before making her decision,” they said. “We will reflect on the circumstances of this case to ensure victims are given the clearest possible information to help them make informed decisions.”
Davis did not respond to requests for comment.
Under the criminal justice system in England and Wales, the offence for which Davis was convicted would likely have been charged as rape. Sentencing would have been determined by a judge, following guidelines ranging between four and ۱۹ years, with a statutory maximum of life imprisonment.
The military system through which Davis was convicted could have imposed a sentence of up to ۳۰ years. Davis’s defence lawyers instead recommended ۳۰ days of confinement. The decision on what would make an appropriate sentence was left to the same panel of officers and airmen who served as the jury.
After deliberating for more than two and a half hours, they settled on ۱۰ months. Davis was also dishonourably discharged from the air force and placed on a sex offender registry, in which his status is now listed as “absconded”.
“He could have had ۳۰ years, but he got ۱۰ months,” Emily said. “Ten months is a slap on the wrist.”
Additional reporting by Sophie Sullivan
