A white man “filled with hatred” has been jailed for life after racially abusing a Sikh woman as he raped her.
John Ashby, 32, followed the woman home after spotting her on a bus in Walsall, West Midlands, in October last year, and subjected her to a 24-minute ordeal after breaking in armed with a metre-long stick.
He wrongly believed she was Muslim and verbally abused her during the prolonged sexual assault, in which he also strangled and beat her. Prosecutors in England and Wales have no other case on record of someone being convicted for a religiously motivated rape.
Birmingham crown court heard that Ashby made her undress and repeatedly told her she was a “fucking Muslim bitch” during the attack, even after she told him she was Sikh. The court heard he made reference to his whiteness and Britishness as he raped her, slapping and punching her and saying: “I am the master.”
He forced her to repeat the abuse back to him, at one point making her sit in a bath while he poured water over her, and say the word “hallelujah”.
The judge, Mr Justice Pepperall, said Ashby attacked the woman because she was Asian, wrongly believing she was Muslim, with details of the attack exposing the rapist as a “deeply unpleasant racist and Islamophobe”.
He said the details of the case showed “additional degradation and humiliation”, with Ashby pulling his victim back after she tried to escape. The Guardian has learned Ashby had watched anti-women material on social media, some from the influencer Andrew Tate, before the attack.
After his arrest for the rape, Ashby, who was staying in Perry Barr, Birmingham, told officers: “You never see any Englishmen in Perry Barr any more.”
Ashby changed his plea to guilty on Tuesday, the day after his trial started, admitting to rape, robbery, intentional strangulation and religiously aggravated assault. He asked to see his barrister about an hour after being told to “sort your shit out” by a member of the public who approached the dock of Birmingham crown court.
His minimum term is 13 and a half years, and the judge stressed he must serve all of it before he can be considered for release. Pepperall said the life term, which is rare for a single rape, was merited because Ashby was so dangerous, especially to women.
The judge praised the victim, who came back into court after having a panic attack during the sentencing. “I have nothing but admiration for your bravery,” he told her.
The woman cried at times during the hearing as the court was told details of the ordeal and of the continuing distress caused to her. Nonetheless, she said she had been willing to testify against her attacker and said: “I wanted him to explain why he did this to me.”
The court had heard how Ashby spotted the woman on a bus from Walsall town centre and decided to follow and sexually attack her on 25 October 2025. She arrived home just before 6.30pm and was in the bathroom when Ashby broke in.
The woman called 999, with her “howls of anguish” audible on the call, said Rav Dhillon, the senior crown prosecutor who oversaw the case. Dhillon added: “He was clearly filled with so much hatred that that’s what seems to have motivated him.”
In a victim impact statement the woman, who has anonymity under the law, said: “What happened to me has changed every part of my life.
“I feel lost and I struggle to recognise myself. I feel like my sense of safety, in myself and my surroundings, has been taken away from me.”
She said she suffered flashbacks, had been left with anxiety and was scared by every noise. When alone in the house she locked herself in her room, and had not told her family, fearing they would feel guilty for letting her come to the UK two years ago from India.
She has quit her job and stays home. But she said she had been determined to face Ashby: “Despite the distress I was feeling … I knew I had to be brave and strong. It took everything in my being to come to court.
“I knew I would have to relive and go through the horrendous incident again, but I was willing to do it, to show that I would no longer let this person and incident control my life. I wanted to face the person who had done this to me, see him eye to eye.”
Weeks before the rape, Ashby was alleged to have racially abused staff at a hospital where he was being treated for psychosis caused by drug use, and he had recently been released from jail where he had been detained for a violent offence.
The judge heard Ashby was released from hospital without the required care in place.
Dabinderjit Singh, of the Sikh Federation (UK), said: “The severe racist element of the attack has been highlighted in the court proceedings and sends a strong signal to all racists that carry out violent attacks.”
Sikh Women’s Aid (SWA), which was supporting the woman, welcomed the sentencing. The SWA chair, Sukhvinder Kaur, said: “At the centre of this case is an exceptionally brave survivor whose strength, dignity and resilience have been extraordinary.”
