Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley and longtime campaigner for victims' rights, has expressed shock and outrage over the case of Sarah Steele, a British woman abused by a US airman in the UK. In a Guardian opinion piece, Phillips revealed that Steele was denied many of the protections that UK courts now guarantee victims of domestic, sexual, and physical violence.
Hard-won rights denied to UK victim
Phillips noted that decades of campaigning have secured rights such as separate entrances to avoid facing abusers, video evidence, screens in court, and strict rules on questioning about sexual history and medical records. However, Steele's case involved a US military court where these protections did not apply. Captain Jacob Wulfson was charged with “aggravated sexual contact,” a crime that does not exist in UK law, and was acquitted of that charge. He received a six-month sentence for “non-fatal strangulation” from an all-male jury of his peers, subject to automatic appeal.
“British women have rights, hard won. Oh, that is unless the person who they accuse of assault is a US military man stationed or operating in our country,” Phillips wrote. She emphasized that Steele was in the courtroom with her accuser throughout, and the jurors all worked on the same military base as the accused. Phillips compared this to a trial against her being heard only by other women from the parliamentary Labour party, saying, “if it was just my actual mates who could sit on any jury of a crime I committed, I may very well fancy my chances of getting away with more crimes.”
Questioning would not be allowed in UK court
Phillips stated that the way Steele was questioned by a US military defence lawyer would never have been permitted in a UK court. “From reading accounts of how she was questioned by a firebrand US military defence lawyer, I feel safe to say that he would never have been able to get away with saying what he did in a UK court,” she wrote.
The case, revealed by a Guardian investigation, has prompted Phillips to pledge action. “Sarah Steele is a British woman. Sarah Steele lives in the UK. Sarah Steele was abused in the UK,” Phillips wrote. “The moment Cambridgeshire police allowed the US military to take the lead in this case, Sarah Steele stepped out from that crowd of women and stood completely on her own. This should never have been allowed to happen.”
Promise to change the law
Phillips acknowledged that the UK court system is far from perfect, but said she never imagined she would find herself wishing it was available to everyone. She vowed to work to change the situation so that no UK victim is handed over to the US military for a crime committed on UK soil unless that is what the victim wants. “Sarah, I’m sorry I couldn’t hear you, I’m sorry they were able to silence you, I can see you now and I promise I will try to change this,” she concluded.
