US airman accused of exposing himself to five females including a 16-year-old girl escaped British justice by being allowed to face a court martial at his base

Published: 17:50, 7 July 2026 | Updated: 17:57, 7 July 2026 A US airman accused of exposing himself to five females including a 16-year-old girl escaped British justice by being allowed to have a court martial at his base. Staff Sergeant Hannes Marschalek was said to have committed the offences in a two-month period in 2022. One alleged victim claimed she spotted him standing at the front door of his home in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, with his private parts on display as he held a mobile phone. Another reported seeing him with his shorts around his knees as he held himself in one hand and held the screen of his phone ‘at an angle toward where [I] was standing’. Cambridgeshire Police arrested and questioned Marschalek but three weeks later agreed to cede authority to the US military following an official request from the Americans. The defendant, who was stationed at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, took part in a court martial in 2023 where a plea bargain meant one of the two indecent conduct charges against him was dismissed. In April this year, the sole guilty verdict was overturned at a US military appeal court after it was argued prosecutors had erred by charging him under the wrong offence. That decision is now being challenged. The case, reported by the Guardian, will reignite concerns about US military personnel avoiding British justice after it emerged last month that another airman accused of an offence - and also based at Lakenheath - had been allowed to face a court martial. Staff Sergeant Hannes Marschalek, 37, was accused of exposing himself to five females including a 16-year-old girl Fighter pilot Captain Jacob Wulfson was said to have strangled and had unprotected sex with academic Sarah Steele in his Cambridge apartment. She has described the combative process in the court martial as a ‘degrading’ experience. Shadow Secretary of State for Justice Nick Timothy, who represents West Suffolk, told the Mail: ‘This shows exactly the problem that was revealed in the Sarah Steele case. ‘The treaty is clear that US service personnel alleged to have committed offences against local people should be tried in our courts. ‘I have asked the Justice Secretary to investigate what is happening and we need clarity now.’ Marschalek, 37, moved to the UK with his wife and daughter after he was posted to Lakenheath in 2021. He was arrested at his home on October 9 the following year and taken into custody following the complaints by the victims, the oldest of whom was 24. One complainant described him ‘standing at or near the doorway with the door completely open’, with no shirt, his shorts pulled down to his knees, and his penis exposed. The US airman, pictured in the foreground, was able to avoid UK justice after American officials persuaded Cambridgeshire Police to cede control of the case She said: ‘His left hand was holding his cellphone with the screen facing toward him and the camera facing out at an angle toward where [she] was standing … His right hand was on his penis.’ Another stated he had been ‘posing’ completely naked at the door with a ‘blue Pepsi can in his left hand and his right hand above his head on top of the door frame’. Marschalek, of the 72nd Comptrollers Squadron, texted two friends in July 2022 to say he had 'definitely' flashed women from his home, according to court martial documents. One message said: ‘I definitely just flashed a couple ladies walking from the train. LOL.’ A subsequent text added: ‘I took all my clothes off when I walked in. I went to go open a window and I was standing right in front of it when they walked by.’ Military prosecutors told the hearing that the messages showed he was ‘repeatedly exposing his genitalia to unexpected women, and then bragging about it, and then laughing about it’. Yet Cambridgeshire Police handed the investigation to the US authorities on October 31 that year, while Marschalek was on bail. ‘During the course of the investigation an official request was received from the relevant authorities within the US military asking us to consider transferring the investigation to them for onward progression,’ a spokesman said. Marschalek was allowed to face a court martial at his base in West Suffolk ‘This was carefully considered and all victims were updated in regards to the decision made to transfer the investigations to the US military for continued investigation.’ The force added ‘all victims were consulted with prior to the decision’ and no complaints had been received at the time. A US air force spokesman said it had ‘negotiated jurisdiction over this case with the local police using all available facts at the time’. Marschalek told military investigators in an interview: ‘I understand and believe my behaviour, specifically opening the door to be seen naked, which sexually excited me, could have been perceived by others as vulgar, obscene and repugnant.’ In return for the plea bargain, he admitted standing at his door naked on two occasions between August and October 2022. A reference to masturbation was removed from the charge sheet. His defence included claims that he had ‘removed my clothes after working out and placed them in the washing machine’ and that he had opened his front door because his ‘house did not have air conditioning, so [I had] to get a cross-breeze going in the house and cool things down’. He was sentenced to two months in Lakenheath’s correctional facility and dismissed from the air force. The maximum sentence in a UK court for the offence is two years. RAF Lakenheath is largest US base in Britain, with more than 6,000 personnel plus family members. It boasts a shopping mall, drive-thru Taco Bell and uses dollars as currency The largest US base in Britain, Lakenheath has more than 6,000 personnel plus family members, boasts a shopping mall, drive-thru Taco Bell and uses dollars as currency. The shamed airman has moved back to his home country, where he remains on the sex offender register. British police have the authority to refuse requests from the US military to hand over criminal cases that take place on UK soil by off-duty personnel. The Wulfson case triggered widespread concern, with Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman describing it as ‘deeply distressing’. Deputy PM David Lammy told Parliament the US government needed to give a full account of what took place.