Elham Asaad Buaras
A depraved attacker who wrongly believed a Sikh woman was Muslim launched a savage, religiously aggravated rape after stalking her from a bus stop and following her home, a court has heard.
John Ashby, 32, trailed the woman in her twenties after she got off a bus in Walsall on October 25 2025 before forcing his way into her home armed with a two-foot stick he had picked up from the ground.
What followed, prosecutors said, was a 24-minute ordeal in which the homeless offender raped, strangled and beat her while shouting anti-Muslim abuse and repeatedly referencing Islam, despite his victim not being Muslim.
He also described himself as a “British master” and subjected the woman to further degrading treatment, including forcing her into a bath, turning on hot water, and pouring it over her while ordering her to say “hallelujah”.
At Birmingham Crown Court on April 24, Judge Mr Justice Pepperall jailed Ashby for life with a minimum term of 14 years, branding him a “deeply unpleasant racist and Islamophobe”.
The court heard that Ashby had followed the stranger from the bus stop before slipping into her home unnoticed, with CCTV later showing him trailing her moments before the attack.
Once inside, he forced her into the bathroom, ordered her to undress, and strangled her as he demanded compliance. He then moved her into the bedroom and told her he was there “to have fun”.
Prosecutor Phil Bradley KC told the court that Ashby made further racialised remarks during the assault, including references to his own body in “white British” terms.
The attack only ended when Ashby was disturbed by a noise outside and fled the property, stealing the victim’s jewellery and mobile phone.
In a chilling post-arrest exchange after his detention in Perry Barr, Birmingham on October 26, 2025, he made further racist comments about “Englishmen” in the city and questioned why the victim was not wearing a hijab when shown her photograph by police.
The victim attended sentencing on 24 April 2026 and told the court her life had been “changed every part”, adding: “Before the incident life was great… now I feel like that version of myself has been stripped away… I feel lost and I struggle to recognise myself.”
Ashby, who had ten previous convictions for 18 offences, was homeless at the time of the attack and had been released from psychiatric care just three days earlier on October 21, 2025. However, the judge ruled that his actions were driven by voluntary drug use rather than mental illness.
He changed his plea shortly before the victim was due to give evidence during the trial on April 21–22.
Community reactions were swift. Sikh organisations said the attack had caused “absolute terror” across the West Midlands.
The Muslim Council of Britain also responded. Assistant Secretary General Dr Naomi Green said: “Our hearts go out to the victim, her family and the wider Sikh community in the West Midlands who have been deeply traumatised by this and similar events in recent months. Women and girls are so often on the front line of violence, and the normalisation of race and religious-based hatred only deepens their vulnerability.”
The Sikh Federation UK said the life sentence sent a “strong signal” to racists, calling it a rare but important recognition of the severity of religiously aggravated violence.
