The Marine was charged with serious assault of a person over 60, assaulting a police officer and wilful damage. Authorities have not revealed what the American soldier was doing at Gallipoli Barracks.
The US Marine Corps is facing a $25 million law suit for failing to discipline a colonel over his lewd conduct in Darwin which included sending inappropriate text messages to a female Australian major and showing pornography to a male navy commander.
The law suit was initiated last week by a woman whose child was sexually abused by Colonel Daniel Hunter Wilson after he was transferred to a new command in the US without being disciplined over his Darwin behaviour.
Australian military officers could be asked to give evidence in support of the legal action relating to Wilson, 56, who last year was sentenced to 5½ years’ jail for sexually abusing the woman’s six-year-old daughter.
Wilson, a 36-year veteran of the marines, was posted to Darwin for six months in the sensitive role as liaison officer for the Marine Rotational Force in early 2016.
But just 10 days into the job he was removed and sent back to the US following complaints about his behaviour from local officers, especially his Australian counterpart.
“Had they (the Marine Corps) handled it properly he would never have been stuck back where he could assault my daughter.’
... it was possible Australian and US forces were more concerned about the military relationship than they were about properly investigating the allegations: 'ADF are actively attempting to keep it out of the public eye'
On Sunday, Japanese law enforcement detained Lance Cpl. Nicholas James-McLean over a fatal road accident. The US marine is said to have ignored a red light, crashing his two-ton military truck into a vehicle driven by a 61-year-old local man, who was later pronounced dead in hospital. According to the results of a breath test, James-McLean’s blood alcohol level was three times over the limit allowed in Japan.
US military personnel and civilian contractors working for American forces have been accused of multiple crimes in Okinawa this year. From January to October 2017, two have been arrested on allegations of robbery, two on allegations of rape and six on allegations of violent offenses, according to the Okinawa Prefecture Police website. Last year, US sailors in Japan were banned from drinking for an 11-day period after a petty officer was accused of driving on the wrong side of the road, hitting two cars and injuring two people, while under the influence of alcohol. In 2016, two incidents in the space of three months prompted widespread public anger -- in March, a US service member was arrested on suspicion of raping a Japanese tourist, and in May, a civilian contractor at a US base in Okinawa was arrested in connection with the death of a 20-year-old woman.