Rapist admits religiously aggravated attack on stranger he ‘targeted’ on a bus
A sex attacker who subjected a stranger to racist and anti-Muslim abuse as he raped her at her home has changed his pleas to guilty after being verbally abused in the dock.
John Ashby admitted charges of rape, robbery, intentional strangulation and religiously aggravated assault on Tuesday at Birmingham Crown Court. The 32-year-old, of no fixed abode, asked to see his barrister and changed his pleas around an hour after being sworn at and told to “sort your shit out” by a member of public who approached the dock. The outburst, which the judge described as an “ugly incident”, happened after Ashby started mumbling during the Crown’s evidence. His victim, a Sikh woman who was hit with a stick, had been due to enter the witness box to give evidence against Ashby later on Tuesday. Opening the case for the Crown on Monday, prosecution KC Phil Bradley said Ashby “targeted” the woman when he spotted her on a bus and followed her to her home in Walsall on foot last October. Adjourning the case for sentence on Friday, Mr Justice Pepperall warned Ashby that he was considering the imposition of a life sentence. Extracts from “harrowing” body-worn police footage showing the young woman, who was in court to see Ashby change his pleas, had been played to a jury of six men and six women, during which she was comforted by a female officer and said her attacker had called her a “bloody Muslim bitch”. The woman told police she had been raped in a bathroom by the intruder, who claimed to be a “British master”. In a video interview played to the trial, the complainant told police: “He had a stick in his hand. I said ‘who are you’ and I started screaming. “He switched off the light. He said ‘I just want fun with you’. He said ‘you are a f****** Muslim bitch’, I said ‘I am not a Muslim, I am a Sikh’.” Prosecutors told the court there could be no doubt that Ashby was the man who attacked the woman, citing DNA evidence, fingerprints found on a vape and the fact he was picked out by the victim at an identity parade. CCTV footage also placed Ashby near the scene, where he picked up the two-foot long stick. Speaking after Ashby’s guilty pleas, the judge said: “It seems to me that a stranger who breaks into a woman’s house, who commits these offences and does so expressing hostility to her on the basis of her presumed religion is a dangerous person. “I don’t think I need a report to tell me that. “I will be considering very carefully whether a life sentence is the right sentence in this case.” He then addressed Ashby directly, saying: “As I have already made clear, it seems to me that somebody who commits offences in these circumstances is a dangerous individual. “The court must have in its mind whether or not a life sentence is the appropriate sentence.” The judge then turned to the jury panel, some of whom had appeared distressed during the evidence, and told them: “Today was a tough day, I know, as you watched those harrowing recordings. “My apologies that you had to listen to that evidence.” Mr Justice Pepperall praised the “great bravery” of the victim in coming into court, accompanied by her partner, to see Ashby admit his guilt. Meanwhile, a court usher was praised by the judge for his calmness as he responded to the man who approached the dock to berate Ashby after the defendant, dressed in a grey sweater and jogging bottoms, appeared to whisper: “It’s all bullshit.” The man, believed to be a member of the Sikh community with an interest in the case who was not known to the victim, then walked calmly to within three feet of the glass-fronted dock and told Ashby: “You’re the bullshit. You need to sort your shit out.”
Published: by Radio NewsHub