Life sentence for man who raped woman in her home

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-06

[00:00:01]John Ashb, upon your admissions partway through your trial, you have been convicted of rape, intentional strangulation, robbery, and religiously aggravated assault.

[00:00:15]On 25th October 2025, you spotted a woman on a bus.

[00:00:21]When she ellighted at her stop, you also got off the bus and followed her at a distance as she walked home.

[00:00:31]When she went into her house, you scouted around for ways into her property.

[00:00:37]You armed yourself with a big stick, pulled up your hood, and entered through an insecure door at the back of the house.

[00:00:47]Once inside, you climbed the stairs and attacked the woman in her own bathroom.

[00:00:56]Ignoring her terrified screams, you struck her with the stick and ordered her to undress.

[00:01:05]You whipped her and hit her many times, and you put your hands around her neck to strangle her.

[00:01:15]You demanded that she climb into the bathtub.

[00:01:19]You turned on the hot water and insisted that she should say allelujah.

[00:01:26]You repeated on many occasions that you were the master.

[00:01:32]You said that she was dirty.

[00:01:35]You ordered her to repeat these words back to you. You insisted that you wanted some fun with her.

[00:01:44]You then exposed yourself.

[00:01:47]You repeatedly called her a dirty and a filthy [ __ ] You insisted that she should shower.

[00:01:55]At that point, you took some drugs and were later to test positive for cocaine.

[00:02:03]You You took her through to her bedroom.

[00:02:06]You demanded money.

[00:02:08]When she screamed again, you said that you were the master and that she was a [ __ ] You made her repeat that you were the master and that she was a [ __ ] Realizing that moving downstairs might give her the chance to escape. The woman said that there was oil in the kitchen.

[00:02:30]As she got downstairs, the woman opened the front door and screamed for help.

[00:02:36]You pulled her back and shut the door.

[00:02:40]You slapped and punched her head and you demanded property from her. You took some jewelry and a mobile phone.

[00:02:48]Fortunately, you were spooked by noises outside and fearing that you were about to be disturbed, you ran off.

[00:02:57]On your arrest, you said to police that you never see any Englishmen in Perry Bar anymore.

[00:03:04]on being shown a photograph of the woman during your police interview. You asked why she wasn't wearing a hijab.

[00:03:14]These offenses have had a devastating impact upon this woman.

[00:03:19]The immediate impact was captured by CCTV cameras in the street and the bodywn cameras worn by the attending police officers.

[00:03:30]That footage was particularly harrowing.

[00:03:36]She and her partner could not bring themselves to spend another night in their home.

[00:03:43]6 months on, the woman and her partner have described in their victim personal statements the profound effect of these crimes on every aspect of her life.

[00:03:56]It is clear that the fact that she was raped by an intruder in her own home has been particularly difficult. It has meant that she is always on edge and that she constantly thinks that an intruder is in the house. She lives in a state of fear.

[00:04:16]When home alone, she locks herself in her room and avoids going to the bathroom as much as possible.

[00:04:23]She does not feel able to go out without her partner.

[00:04:28]She experiences flashbacks and continually replays what happened in her mind.

[00:04:35]She suffers panic attacks that have on occasion been so serious that she has had to be taken to hospital by ambulance.

[00:04:45]She has been unable to hold down employment and has felt unable to talk about her experience to friends and family.

[00:04:54]As a result, she has become isolated at home while her partner works to pay their bills.

[00:05:02]Every aspect of the couple's lives has been affected by your crimes and they have had to put their marriage plans on hold.

[00:05:14]John Ashby, you are now 32 years old.

[00:05:19]You have previous convictions for carrying weapons, criminal damage, assault and battery, theft, possession of drugs, harassment, and breach of a restraining order.

[00:05:32]You have served a number of relatively short prison sentences.

[00:05:39]Between 5th September and 22nd October 2025, you were detained in a mental hospital under section two and then section three of the Mental Health Act 1983.

[00:05:54]On admission to the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, you were psychotic.

[00:06:00]You were hearing voices.

[00:06:02]You believed others could control and read your thoughts.

[00:06:07]and you suffered paranoid and persecuto delusions.

[00:06:12]You made good progress and by 13th September you had been transferred to an acute ward.

[00:06:19]By 24th September your thought process was no longer disordered.

[00:06:27]Although you made a good recovery, there are a number of disturbing entries in the medical records.

[00:06:34]First and most worryingly, an entry dated 1st October 2025 describes an incident when high on drugs. You grabbed a female while you were out on the street.

[00:06:48]She was a stranger to you. She screamed for help and fortunately others intervened.

[00:06:56]Asked what your intentions had been, you replied that you were sexually frustrated at the time.

[00:07:04]Secondly, there are repeated reports that you were still abusing drugs when allowed out on leave.

[00:07:11]Thirdly, you were violent, threatening, abusive, and racist on a number of occasions during your detention.

[00:07:19]Matters came to a head on 22nd October.

[00:07:23]Although you were discharged that day, you bought drugs while on escorted leave.

[00:07:30]You punched the member of staff who reported the drug deal multiple times to his head and face.

[00:07:37]You later said that you would do the same again and would kill that member of staff if you saw him outside the unit.

[00:07:44]And when police officers attended to arrest you, you again assaulted the member of staff.

[00:07:52]Only you are responsible for your subsequent actions.

[00:07:56]Nevertheless, I am concerned that the medical records indicate that you were discharged without any proper afterare arrangements in place as required by section 117 of the mental health act 1983.

[00:08:13]Structured after care after a period of detention under the act and at the very least accommodation upon discharge is important not just in the best interests of the patient but in order to manage the risk that the patient may pose to public safety.

[00:08:32]I've considered a report from Dr. Vivc Fetardo a consultant forensic psychiatrist.

[00:08:40]He concluded that you meet the diagnostic criteria for an autism spectrum disorder and that there are maladaptive personality traits of a dissoci evident from your issues with regulating your own anger, emotions and behavior.

[00:08:58]There was however insufficient evidence for a formal diagnosis of a personality disorder.

[00:09:06]Dr. Fatardo reported that the most significant factor in understanding your mental health is your long-standing drug use.

[00:09:16]He identified a harmful pattern of the use of crack cocaine and synthetic cannabonoids associated with psychotic symptoms.

[00:09:26]He recorded that you knew that your drug use had a negative impact on your mental health.

[00:09:34]Dr. Fardo concluded that your mental health was negatively affected at the time of these offenses, not by any underlying disorder or mental illness, but by your voluntary use of illicit drugs.

[00:09:51]In passing sentence, I have considered the offense specific guidelines issued by the sentencing council for each of these offenses.

[00:10:00]Further, I have considered the guidelines for totality sentencing offenders with mental and developmental disorders and for reduction in sentence for guilty please.

[00:10:12]I propose to pass a sentence for the offense of rape which reflects the totality of your offending on this indictment and then pass shorter concurrent terms of imprisonment in respect of the other offenses.

[00:10:28]I turned then to the guidelines issued by the sentencing council for offenses of rape.

[00:10:35]I agree with council that this was a category one harm case because of the extreme nature and impact of the following factors.

[00:10:45]First, you raped this woman after you forced your way uninvited into her home.

[00:10:52]Secondly, you used violence against her that went far beyond that inherent in the offense of rape. You strangled her.

[00:11:01]You whipped her. You hit her around the head. And you pulled her back from the door and struck her when she tried to escape.

[00:11:11]Thirdly, you subjected her to additional degradation and humiliation.

[00:11:18]Fourthly, you held her against her will as you sexually and physically assaulted her for at least 24 minutes.

[00:11:28]Fifthly, your offending has caused her severe psychological harm.

[00:11:35]I also agree with council that this was a high culpability case.

[00:11:41]I reached that conclusion because I find that throughout this offending, you demonstrated your hostility to this woman because she is Asian, and because you assumed that she was a Muslim, your repeated insistence that she call you the master, that she was a filthy Muslim [ __ ] that she should repeat the word hallelujah as you poured water over her, and your subsequent remarks following your arrest.

[00:12:11]reveal you as a deeply unpleasant racist and Islamophobe.

[00:12:18]In addition, I find that this offending was planned for at least some minutes before you entered this woman's home.

[00:12:27]You picked her out on the bus and you followed her to her home, intent on sexual violence against her.

[00:12:38]The starting point for a category 1A offense is 15 years imprisonment with a category range of 13 to 19 years.

[00:12:49]I must then consider the further aggravating and mitigating features of your case. Here there are five further aggravating features.

[00:12:59]First, this offense is aggravated by your previous convictions and particularly your previous convictions for violence.

[00:13:08]Secondly, you used a weapon both to strike and frighten her.

[00:13:14]Thirdly, in committing this rape, you ejaculated in the course of unprotected sex despite knowing you had been diagnosed with hepatitis C.

[00:13:27]Fourthly, you committed this offense under the influence of cocaine.

[00:13:32]Fifthly, the victim was compelled to leave her home.

[00:13:39]In mitigation, your barristers argue that the medical evidence is highly relevant to culpability.

[00:13:46]They argue that you had significant neurodedevelopmental and mental health difficulties, marked impulsivity, and reduced emotional regulation, all of which materially contributed to the commission of these offenses.

[00:14:04]I do not agree.

[00:14:06]And in fairness, in her oral submissions, Miss Healey King's Council accepted that the medical evidence provided context for your offending rather than any real mitigation.

[00:14:19]In my judgment, your autism was characterized by deficits in social communication, and there is no formal evidence of ADHD.

[00:14:30]In any event, any such neurodedevelopmental disorders do not even start to explain these offenses.

[00:14:40]Your personality traits might explain why you lost your temper when challenged in the unit, but provide no real mitigation for your deliberate and considered actions in breaking into a house in order to commit rape.

[00:14:56]That said, I accept that your personality may explain your lack of empathy.

[00:15:04]There is no evidence of a serious underlying mental illness. Your earlier psychotic episodes were caused by your own voluntary actions in abusing elicit drugs, knowing full well that drugs exacerbated your mental health issues.

[00:15:21]In any event, there is no evidence that you were psychotic at the time of these offenses.

[00:15:30]In my judgment, the appropriate sentence after trial for this offense of rape is right at the top of the category range.

[00:15:40]The offense of religiously aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm is a category 1A offense within the assault guidelines with a starting point of 2 and 1/2 years. The assault was aggravated by your previous convictions, the commission of this offense in this woman's home, and the fact that the offense was committed while you were under the influence of drugs.

[00:16:05]The appropriate sentence after trial was 3 and a half years imprisonment.

[00:16:11]This offense was further aggravated by reason of your hostility towards this woman based on your mistaken assumption as to her religion.

[00:16:21]The sentence for that offense must therefore be increased to reflect that additional factor.

[00:16:28]In my judgment, the appropriate sentence after trial would be 4 and a half years.

[00:16:35]The offense of intentional strangulation is a category 2B offense within those guidelines with a starting point of 18 months imprisonment.

[00:16:45]The offense was aggravated by your previous convictions, the commission of this offense in this woman's home, your religiously aggravated hostility towards her, and the taking of drugs.

[00:16:58]My judgment, the appropriate sentence after trial would be 2 and a half years.

[00:17:05]The offense of robbery is a category 1A offense within the guidelines for robberies committed within a dwelling.

[00:17:14]Again, it is aggravated by your previous convictions and the taking of drugs. Had this case just been about a violent robbery in the home, the starting point would have been 13 years imprisonment and the appropriate sentence after trial would have been 14 years.

[00:17:34]I must then consider the principle of totality.

[00:17:38]I have already treated your violence beyond that inherent in the offense and your religious hostility as serious aggravating features of the rape.

[00:17:50]That with other factors justified the conclusion that that was a category 1A offense at a notional sentence after trial of 19 years imprisonment.

[00:18:02]Such sentence does not however however reflect the further aggravating feature that you also committed robbery.

[00:18:11]In my judgment, the appropriate sentence after trial for the totality of your offending across this indictment is 22 years imprisonment.

[00:18:22]Your victim has had to endure months waiting for trial and had to prepare herself mentally to give evidence to the jury.

[00:18:31]Your late guilty plea did not spare her having to rewatch her video interviews or her inevitable anxiety in preparing to give evidence while you took matters to the wire. Your pleas did however spare her at the last minute from having to face cross-examination.

[00:18:54]For that I make a modest allowance and reduce the sentence to one of 21 years.

[00:19:01]Having determined the proper determinate sentence, I returned to the careful stepped approach in the rape guideline, I am next required to consider the issue of dangerousness.

[00:19:15]Defense council concede that there is no need to order a pre-sentence report in this case to address that issue. I agree.

[00:19:26]Taking into account the extreme facts of this case, I have no doubt whatever that you are a very dangerous man and that you pose a significant risk to women of serious harm occasioned by the commission of further sexual offenses.

[00:19:46]While I do not treat the unproven allegation that you grabbed a female in the street out of your apparent sexual frustration as an aggravating feature of your case, it is nevertheless information that I can properly take into account in considering the issue of dangerousness and the assessment of risk, and it confirms me in my clear conclusion.

[00:20:14]I must then consider whether I should pass a life sentence in this case.

[00:20:19]In assessing this issue, I conclude that you pose an extreme level of danger to the public and particularly to women and that there is no reliable way of estimating the length of time that you will remain a danger.

[00:20:38]In my judgment, the seriousness of this offense of rape taken together with the other offenses on this indictment is such as to justify the imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment.

[00:20:52]The risk to the public cannot be adequately met by an extended determinate sentence.

[00:20:59]I am therefore required by section 285 of the sentencing act 2020 to pass a sentence of life imprisonment.

[00:21:10]I am next required by law to fix the minimum term being the period that must be served in custody before you can apply to the parole board to be considered for release.

[00:21:23]I start from the notional determinate sentence of 21 years.

[00:21:29]That sentence must however be adjusted for two reasons.

[00:21:34]First, I must reduce the notional term determinate sentence by 1/3 to reflect the fact that there will be no early release under the life sentence that I impose.

[00:21:47]Secondly, I must adjust the sentence to reflect the time that you have already spent in custody. I therefore reduce the minimum term that you will serve by 180 days.

[00:22:00]John Ashby, will you stand up, please?

[00:22:05]John Ashb, I sentence you to life imprisonment for the offense of rape and order that you will serve a minimum term of 13 years, 185 days.

[00:22:17]I impose concurrent sentences of imprisonment in respect of the remaining counts on this indictment. Two and a half years for intentional strangulation, 14 years for robbery, and 4 and a half years for religiously aggravated assault, occasioning actual bodily harm.

[00:22:38]While it is well known that offenders sentenced to a determinate sentence of imprisonment are released early and serve the balance of their sentence in the community. It is important that both you and the public understand that when a judge imposes a sentence of life imprisonment, the offender must serve every single day of the minimum term.

[00:23:02]Furthermore, even after serving the minimum term, the offender will only be released from prison when the parole board decides that further imprisonment is no longer necessary for public protection.

[00:23:16]Upon eventual release, the offender will remain under supervision on license for the rest of his life and may be recalled to prison at any time.

[00:23:29]Further, I order that you should pay the appropriate statutory search charge.

[00:23:35]Take him down.