A man who raped a Sikh woman in her own home has been sentenced to life in prison after being subjected to a religiously fueled abuse tirade.
During his attack in Walsall, John Ashby beat the woman – in her 20s – with a stick, while shouting anti-Muslim abuse, mistakenly believing her to be of that faith.
At a sentencing hearing at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, the judge described the 32-year-old as a “deeply unpleasant racist and Islamophobe”.
Ashby was asked to serve at least 14 years in prison.
Warning: This story contains disturbing details
During the trial, which began on Monday and ended on Tuesday when Ashby pleaded guilty, the court heard how he followed the victim – a stranger – as she got off the bus in October 2025.
After the woman arrived at her home, Ashby, without her knowledge, entered the property armed with a two-foot stick he had picked up from the ground.
He pleaded guilty to rape, robbery, intentional strangulation and religious abuse.
Sentencing, judge Mr Justice Pepperall said Ashby, of no fixed address, had held the woman against her will for “sexual and physical abuse for at least 24 minutes”.
In his sentencing remarks, the judge told the court on Monday how Ashby was arrested in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham two days after the attack and, when he registered at the police station there, said “you don’t see any English people in Perry Barr”.
He also told Ashby: “When you were shown a photo of a woman during your police interview, you asked why she wasn’t wearing a hijab.”
As the prosecution opened its case earlier this week, the court heard Ashby forced her to take off her clothes, calling himself a “British master” after entering the victim’s bathroom.
He strangled her by putting his hands around her neck and demanded she get into the bathtub.
“He turned on the hot water tap and started pouring water on her, telling her to say ‘Hallelujah,'” said prosecutor Phil Bradley Casey.
The prosecution added that after raping the woman, Ashby went into the bedroom and instructed her to lie on the bed, saying – as he had done in earlier attacks – he was there “to have fun”. He also said that his private part is white British.
Bradley said the attack only ended because Ashby was “scared by the noise outside” and fled with the victim’s jewelry and mobile phone.
The victim sat through Friday’s sentencing hearing and appeared emotional at times but was supported by friends.
In a personal statement read into the court record by a barrister, the woman said: “What happened to me has changed every part of my life.
“Life was great before the incident. I was enjoying life. Now after the incident my life has changed drastically. I feel like there is no explanation why that version of myself has been taken away by a complete stranger.
“I feel lost and I struggle to know myself.”
Ashby beat the victim using a stick found near his home [West Midlands Police]
The hearing was told that Ashby had 10 previous convictions for 18 offenses and a history of mental illness related to substance abuse.
He was homeless at the time of the rape, having been discharged from psychiatric care three days earlier without a support package after deciding he is no longer mentally ill.
The judge told Ashby that a doctor’s report concluded that his mental health had been negatively affected at the time of the offence, “not by any underlying disorder or mental illness” but by “your voluntary use of illicit drugs”.
Ashby changed his plea on Tuesday after his victim was required to testify.
During the day’s proceedings, he appeared to swear under his breath as the Crown presented evidence, with a member of the public – believed to be from the Sikh community – then approaching him in the dock and swearing him back.
About an hour after that exchange, Ashby asked to speak to his barrister, and admitted his guilt.
said Sukhwinder Kaur, chairman of trustees at Sikh Women’s Aid [BBC]
After the sentence, the Sikh Federation (UK) issued a statement saying the judge had the courage to give Ashby a life sentence, describing it as “fit” for his crime.
“The serious racist element of the attack has been highlighted in the court proceedings and it sends a strong signal to all racists who commit violent attacks,” Chief Executive Dabinderjit Singh said.
‘absolute terror’
Sukhwinder Kaur, president of the trustees of Sikh Women’s Aid, said, “This sentence sends a strong message to people who share the views and attitudes of this criminal, so we fully welcome it”.
The attack sent “absolute terror” running through “the whole community of the West Midlands”, she said.
He added: “We cannot separate this rape from the toxic narratives of migration, immigration, immigrant communities. When we look at community, race and religion, they all play into the hatred this criminal has against the community.”
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