A US airman accused of a “spree” of rapes and sexual assaults in England, drugging some women and breaking into the homes of others, avoided British justice after local police handed part of the case to the American military.
Allegations and police response
Two British women went to Suffolk police in August 2019 alleging that James Loubeau and another US airman had drugged and raped them after meeting in a nightclub in Bury St Edmunds. Less than two weeks later, Suffolk police allowed the US air force to take responsibility for investigating the two alleged rapes.
Loubeau, 38, allegedly attacked a total of six women in East Anglia over four months in 2019, in what US prosecutors described as a “frightening and dangerous” pattern. In July 2024, a court in Miami, Florida, convicted him of sexual assaulting one woman on a military base in England. He received a five-year prison sentence and will be monitored for two decades after release.
Jurisdiction under 1951 agreement
Three of Loubeau’s alleged victims were female military personnel at RAF Mildenhall. Under a 1951 US-UK agreement, the US military can claim responsibility for investigating alleged crimes when the victim is another US armed forces member or when the alleged crime occurs while on duty. In almost all other instances, local British police have primary responsibility.
Three of his alleged victims were British, including the two women who met him at a nightclub. Court papers indicate the American airmen offered to drive them home but instead drove to Mildenhall base, where the women woke naked and confused, believing they had been raped.
From UK police to US military
The women reported Loubeau on 3 August 2019. Just 11 days later, Suffolk police transferred responsibility to US military police. The military investigation included up to five other women alleging attacks during Loubeau’s “spree” between April and July 2019.
The case culminated in a 2020 court martial on the base, which acquitted Loubeau. He was dismissed from the US air force under honourable conditions for minor infractions, including sexual advances to drunk women and derogatory language. He returned to the US in 2021.
FBI investigation and US conviction
In 2025, after an FBI investigation, Loubeau was convicted in Miami over allegations from a 19-year-old American servicewoman. DNA linked him to the assault. She had met him at a base bar in May 2019; later he entered her locked bedroom by slipping his hand through an open window. She woke to find him on top of her.
Prosecutors argued Loubeau believed he could act with "impunity". They cited other attacks in England, including a third British woman who alleged assault in her Cambridgeshire home in April 2019. Cambridgeshire police decided there was not enough evidence to charge, noting the victim did not support prosecution. They said they worked with the US air force but did not transfer jurisdiction.
Force review after Guardian investigation
Suffolk police declined to explain their decision to cede jurisdiction. In a statement, they said they are reviewing decision-making surrounding the transfer of primacy to the US air force and case transfer practices, initiated due to the Guardian’s investigation into crimes by US personnel on British soil.
Recent Guardian reports covered cases of a US fighter pilot who strangled a British woman, an airman who sexually assaulted a British woman, and one who allegedly exposed himself to a teenager. In all, US airmen avoided British justice after local police ceded control to American military police. Loubeau’s lawyer declined to comment.
