Man, 32, admits raping Sikh woman in religiously aggravated assault

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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.

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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’.”