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A photo of James Loubeau

James Loubeau, a former airman assigned to RAF Mildenhall in England, was sentenced July 3, 2025, to five years in prison for sexually assaulting another airman in 2019 while she was asleep in her base dorm room. He pleaded guilty to two counts of abusive sexual contact. (Broward County Sheriff's Office)

It took six years, but a former airman who federal prosecutors said went on a sexual assault spree at RAF Mildenhall in England is now facing prison time followed by two decades of supervised release.

James Loubeau, 37, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Miami to a five-year term after pleading guilty to two counts of abusive sexual contact, the Justice Department said in a statement the same day.

The charge stemmed from a May 2019 case in which Loubeau broke into the locked dorm room of a fellow airman and sexually assaulted her while she slept, according to court documents.

Prosecutors had sought lifetime supervised release for Loubeau for what they called his “assaultive spree.” At least four other women said he had sexually assaulted them while he was stationed at Mildenhall, according to sentencing documents.

An Air Force case against him over another airman’s accusation dating from July 2019 was dismissed, court filings say. Three British women who said they had been sexually assaulted by Loubeau declined to participate in a police investigation, prosecutors said in court papers.

James Loubeau looks down in uniform

Airman 1st Class James Loubeau is shown at RAF Mildenhall, England, in August 2018. Loubeau, who received a general discharge under honorable conditions in 2020, was sentenced last week to five years in prison for sexually assaulting a sleeping airman in her dorm room in 2019. (Alexandria Lee/U.S. Air Force)

“Each of the incidents follows a similar pattern: the defendant preying upon heavily intoxicated or asleep women,” prosecutors said.

Loubeau joined the Air Force in 2017, according to court papers, which do not include his rank and job at the time of his separation in March 2020. He was given a general discharge under honorable conditions for disrespecting women and making sexual advances toward them, prosecutors said.

In 2018, he was an airman first class and a 100th Logistics Readiness Squadron vehicle maintenance apprentice at Mildenhall, according to an Air Force statement about a personality test being offered by the base’s Young Airmen’s Council in an effort to foster better recognition and understanding of various personality types.

Although Loubeau’s sentencing involved a crime he committed in 2019, DNA collected during an exam was not matched to him until 2023, according to court papers.

The victim in that case met Loubeau at a bar on Mildenhall on May 4, 2019. After having several alcoholic drinks, she walked back to her base dormitory with a friend, who helped her get ready for bed, according to the DOJ statement.

About 2:30 a.m., she awoke to find a man on top of her in bed, court documents state. The victim called two friends and her military supervisor, who advised her to go to the hospital and have a sexual assault forensic examination performed.

The examination revealed injuries consistent with sexual contact, according to the Justice Department.

Investigators believed that Loubeau entered her room by pulling out the screen of an open window, court documents say. Surveillance video captured Loubeau returning to his dorm room, according to the Justice Department.

Loubeau initially denied having sex with the airman, saying she was “not my type,” according to court documents. But when law enforcement agents showed him the DNA evidence, he acknowledged the sexual encounter, court papers state.

In exchange for Loubeau’s guilty plea, prosecutors dropped a sexual abuse charge.

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Jennifer reports on the U.S. military from Kaiserslautern, Germany, where she writes about the Air Force, Army and DODEA schools. She’s had previous assignments for Stars and Stripes in Japan, reporting from Yokota and Misawa air bases. Before Stripes, she worked for daily newspapers in Wyoming and Colorado. She’s a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

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