What Ashby’s trial heardpublished at 10:32 BST
10:32 BST
Opening the case against Ashby on Monday, before he changed his plea, prosecutor Phil Bradley KC said the 32-year-old, armed with a stick, had followed the woman off a bus and back to her home in Walsall in October last year.
Image source, PA Media
“Despite her screams, he told her to take her clothes off, he struck her with the stick, and he put his hands around her neck to strangle her and demanded that she climb into the bathtub,” Bradley told the court.
“Throughout the attack, he racially and religiously abused her.”
The prosecution said the attack only came to an end because Ashby was “evidently spooked by a noise outside” and ran away, taking the victim’s jewellery and a mobile phone.
He was arrested in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham two days after the attack, and the court heard that when he was booked into custody he told police “you never see any Englishmen in Perry Barr any more”.