Overview
- John Ashby, 32, was jailed for life at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday with a 14-year minimum after pleading guilty to rape, robbery, intentional strangulation and a religiously aggravated assault.
- Prosecutors said he followed the woman from a bus to her Walsall home in October, forced his way in with a stick, raped her in the bathroom, tried to strangle her, then fled with her jewellery and phone.
- Investigators linked him to the crime through CCTV of the pursuit, DNA and fingerprints from the scene, and the victim’s identification in a police lineup.
- He changed his pleas mid-trial about an hour after a member of the public confronted him in court, in what the judge described as an ugly incident.
- The judge called him a racist and Islamophobe who poses an extreme danger to women, while the victim described panic attacks, moving home and a postponed wedding, and Sikh leaders welcomed the sentence.