Man given life sentence for rape and religiously aggravated assault of Sikh woman
A man who raped a Sikh woman in her home and subjected her to a religiously aggravated abusive tirade has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
During his attack in Walsall, John Ashby bludgeoned the woman, aged in her 20s, while shouting anti-Muslim abuse and wrongly believing she was of that faith.
At the sentencing hearing at Birmingham Crown Court on FridayThe judge described the 32-year-old as a “deeply unpleasant racist and Islamophobic”.
Ashby was told he would be sentenced to at least 14 years in prison.
Warning: This story contains distressing details
During the trial, which began on Monday and ended with Ashby’s guilty plea on Tuesday, the court heard how Ashby followed the stranger victim off the bus in October 2025.
After the woman reached her home, Ashby entered the property without her knowledge, armed with a two-foot stick he picked up from the ground.
He pleaded guilty to charges of rape, robbery, intentional strangulation and religiously aggravated assault.
Passing sentence, judge Mr Justice Pepperall said Ashby, of no fixed address, held the woman against her will “as you sexually and physically assaulted her for at least 24 minutes”.
In handing down the sentence, the judge noted that, as the court heard on Monday, Ashby was arrested in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham two days after the attack and when taken to a police station there he said: “You don’t see any Englishmen in Perry Barr anymore.”
He also told Ashby: “When you were shown a photograph of the woman during your police interview, you asked why she was not wearing a headscarf.”
As the prosecution laid out its case earlier this week, the court heard that after entering the victim’s bathroom, Ashby forced her to take off her clothes, telling her he was an “English master”.
He also wrapped his hands around her neck to strangle her and asked her to get into the bathtub.
“He turned on the hot water tap and began pouring water over her, telling her to say ‘hallelujah’ as she did so,” said prosecutor Phil Bradley KC.
The prosecution added that after raping the woman, Ashby instructed her to go to the bedroom and lie down on the bed, saying he was “there to have fun”, as he had done before in the attack. He also stated that his private parts were white British.
Bradley said the attack only ended because Ashby “was spooked by a noise outside” and fled with the victim’s jewelery and mobile phone.
The victim attended Friday’s sentencing hearing and appeared emotional at times but was supported by friends.
In a personal statement read into court records by a lawyer, the woman said: “What happened to me changed every aspect of my life.
“Before the incident, life was great. I was enjoying life. Now, following the incident, my life has changed drastically. I feel like this version of myself has been taken away from me by a complete stranger, with no explanation as to why.”
“I feel lost and have a hard time recognizing myself.”
Ashby used a stick he found near his victim’s home to beat him [West Midlands Police]
The hearing was told Ashby had 10 previous convictions for 18 offenses and a history of mental illness related to drug use.
She was homeless at the time of the rape and had been discharged from psychiatric care three days earlier without any support package after it was determined she was no longer psychotic.
The judge told Ashby that a medical report concluded his mental health was adversely affected at the time of the offenses, but that this was due to your “voluntary use of illegal drugs” and “not due to any underlying disorder or mental illness”.
Ashby changed his plea Tuesday shortly before his victim was due to testify.
During the day’s hearings, while the Crown was giving evidence, he appeared to swear under his breath when a member of the public, believed to be from the Sikh community, approached him on the stand after him and responded to his swearing.
About an hour after this meeting, Ashby asked to speak to his lawyer and confessed his crime.
Sukhvinder Kaur, chairman of the board of trustees of the Sikh Women’s Aid Society, said: [BBC]
Following the sentencing, the Sikh Federation (UK) issued a statement saying the judge had the courage to impose a life sentence on Ashby, describing it as “matching” his crimes.
Chief executive Dabinderjit Singh said: “The serious racist element of the attack was highlighted in the court hearings and sent a strong signal to all racists who carry out violent attacks.”
‘Complete terror’
Sukhvinder Kaur, chair of the board of trustees of the Sikh Women’s Aid Society, said the sentence “sends a strong message to people who hold the views and attitudes of this perpetrator, so we certainly welcome that.”
He said the attack sent “absolute terror” across “the entire community across the West Midlands”.
She added: “We can’t separate this rape from the toxic narratives about immigration, immigration, immigrant communities. When we look at communities, race, religion, all of those things have amplified the hatred that this perpetrator has for a community.”
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