A sex attacker who subjected a stranger to racist and anti-Muslim abuse as he raped her at her home is to be sentenced. Cameras will be allowed in court to record the sentencing of John Ashby, who admitted charges of rape, robbery, intentional strangulation and religiously aggravated assault after being verbally abused in the dock.
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 s*** out” by a member of the public who approached the dock. His victim, a Sikh woman who was hit with a stick, was due to enter the witness box at Birmingham Crown Court later on Tuesday to give evidence against Ashby.
After Ashby changed his pleas, Mr Justice Pepperall warned the defendant that he was considering the imposition of a life sentence. “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,” the judge said. “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.”
