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

A US airman accused of a “spree” of rapes and sexual assaults in England, drugging some women and breaking into the homes of others, was able to avoid British justice after local police handed over part of the case to the American military.

Two British women went to Suffolk police in August ۲۰۱۹ to allege that James Loubeau and another US airman had drugged and raped them after they met in a nightclub in Bury St Edmunds, a local market town.

Less than two weeks later, Suffolk police allowed the US air force to take responsibility for investigating the two alleged rapes.

It has since emerged that Loubeau, ۳۸, allegedly attacked a total of six women in East Anglia over a four-month period in ۲۰۱۹, in what US prosecutors described as a “frightening and dangerous” pattern of assaults.

In July last year, a court in Miami, Florida, convicted Loubeau of sexual assaulting one of the women on a military base in England. Prosecutors in the case said the airman had believed he could attack women with “impunity”. He received a five-year prison sentence and will be monitored for two decades after his release because of the risk he poses to the public.

The fact Loubeau was eventually brought to justice in a court more than ۴,۰۰۰ miles from his alleged crimes will add pressure on Suffolk police to explain its decision to cede jurisdiction in the case. It is declining to do so.

‘In and out of consciousness’

Three of Loubeau’s alleged victims were female military personnel stationed alongside him at RAF Mildenhall, an American military base in Suffolk. Under the terms of a ۱۹۵۱ agreement between the US and UK, the American military can claim responsibility for investigating alleged crimes when the victim is another member of the US armed forces. They also have jurisdiction over alleged crimes that occur when a member of their military is on duty.

In almost all other instances, the local British police force have primary responsibility for investigating crimes on UK soil.

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

Court papers suggest the American airmen offered to drive the women home but instead drove to the Mildenhall base, where they went to Loubeau’s bedroom. One of the women said they were given wine and Disaronno liqueur in plastic cups.

The next thing they remembered was waking about ۶.۳۰am, naked and confused, according to the documents. Neither woman knew how or why they had passed out, and both believed they had been raped, the documents said.

The women reported Loubeau and the second US airman to Suffolk police on ۳ August ۲۰۱۹, prompting the force to open an investigation. Just ۱۱ days later, on ۱۴ August, the force transferred responsibility for investigating the men to US military police.

The military’s investigation appears to have included not just the two British women but as many as three other women who say they were attacked during Loubeau’s alleged “spree” between April and July ۲۰۱۹.

The case culminated in a military trial, or court martial, for Loubeau, who held the rank of airman first class. It centred on allegations by one of his six alleged victims, an American servicewoman who said he had sexually assaulted her in June ۲۰۱۹ after breaking into her bedroom on the base. She alleged she had been woken up by Loubeau, who had sex with her while she was “in and out of consciousness”.

A lack of transparency around the US military justice system means there is no public record of what happened at the court martial, but such tribunals often involve a jury panel of other American service personnel. It took place on the base in ۲۰۲۰ and resulted in Loubeau’s acquittal.

While the military tribunal did not find him guilty, Loubeau, who had been an apprentice in the ۱۰۰th Logistics Readiness vehicle maintenance squadron at Mildenhall, was dismissed from the US air force in ۲۰۲۰ after three years’ service.

He was discharged “under honourable conditions” for a series of what were called “minor infractions”. These included making sexual advances to women who were drunk, using derogatory language towards women and stealing jewellery from a store at RAF Lakenheath, another US airbase. He returned to the US in ۲۰۲۱ and lived with relatives in Miami.

It was not until ۲۰۲۵, after an investigation by the FBI, that Loubeau was convicted over allegations from another of the six women, a ۱۹-year-old American who had been serving with him at Mildenhall.

DNA breakthrough

It is unclear what prompted the FBI to open its investigation, but the federal agency secured a breakthrough when it connected Loubeau to DNA found on his victim, whom he had met at a bar on the base in May ۲۰۱۹.

Later that night, after the ۱۹-year-old had returned to her bedroom, which was locked, Loubeau entered by surreptitiously slipping his hand through her open window and unlatching her door, which was inches away. She was woken at ۲.۳۰am by a hooded Loubeau on top of her. According to the court documents, his victim “thought she had been raped”.

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

They argued that Loubeau was likely to attack women again when he was released from jail. The judge ordered that after completing his prison sentence, he be supervised for two decades to prevent him carrying out further sexual attacks.

In documents submitted to the court, prosecutors cited the allegations of other attacks in England to argue that Loubeau had preyed on sleeping or drunk women in a “disturbing, frightening and dangerous” pattern.

In the documents, the prosecutors said he had carried out an “assaultive spree” in Suffolk in ۲۰۱۹, adding that his “brazen conduct reflects his belief that he can act with impunity”.

Among the cases US prosecutors referenced was that of the third British woman Loubeau was accused of attacking.

Less is known about her case, although the documents suggest she alleged Loubeau had assaulted her in her Cambridgeshire home in April ۲۰۱۹. She reported the alleged attack to Cambridgeshire police a year later, identifying Loubeau.

Cambridgeshire police said they had decided there was not enough evidence to bring a charge, adding that the victim had not supported a prosecution. While the force said they had not transferred responsibility for investigating the allegation to the US military police, a spokesperson added police had “worked with the United States 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 had claimed jurisdiction over alleged rapes for which an English force should have had primary responsibility.

The USAF 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 Suffolk police should be better equipped” to respond, it said.

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

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

In recent weeks the Guardian has reported on the cases of Jacob Wulfson, a US fighter pilot who strangled a British woman in his apartment in Cambridge; Tyrion Davis, an American airman who sexually assaulted a British woman in Brandon, Suffolk; and Hannes Marschalek, a US airman who allegedly exposed himself to a ۱۶-year-old girl and four young women in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, in ۲۰۲۲.

In all the 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 lawyer, who represented him at the Miami hearing, declined to comment.

Additional reporting: Sophie Sullivan