A sex attacker subjected a stranger to racist and anti-Muslim abuse as he raped her at her home after identifying her as a target on a bus, a court has heard.
Birmingham Crown Court was told the woman was attacked in Walsall, West Midlands, after John Ashby followed her on foot and entered her property, barging his way into her bathroom.
Ashby, 32, of no fixed abode, denies rape, intentional strangulation, robbery and religiously aggravated assault.
Opening the case against Ashby on Monday, prosecutor Phil Bradley KC said the woman was followed off a bus in October last year.
Mr Bradley said of the defendant: “A complete stranger to her, John Ashby was nevertheless interested in her and had already targeted her.
“We know that because within seconds of her getting off the bus… to begin the short walk home, he began following her.
“She had no idea he was doing so and continued along normally.”
After the woman entered her property and went into the bathroom, the court heard, Ashby picked up a stick outside and also went into the address.
Having heard a noise, the victim attempted to lock the bathroom door but the defendant barged his way in, Mr Bradley said, adding: “Once inside the bathroom he turned the light off, telling her that he was ‘here to have fun’.”
The prosecutor told the jury of six men and six women: “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.
“Throughout the attack he racially and religiously abused her,” the prosecutor said.
Ashby, the court heard, is alleged to have asked the woman which toothbrush was hers because he wanted to clean his teeth, before exposing himself and performing a sex act on himself.
Mr Bradley added: “He turned on the hot water tap and began pouring water over her, telling her to say ‘hallelujah’ as he did so.”
Ashby allegedly told the woman his name was John and demanded she “repeated his mantra that he was the ‘master’ and she was a ‘bitch’.”
After raping the woman (who was Sikh), the court heard, Ashby instructed her to go into the bedroom and lie on the bed, saying he was there “to have fun” while referring to his private parts as being white British.
He then demanded to carry out another attack on the woman, who tried to escape through the front door in a desperate attempt to raise the alarm, Mr Bradley said.
Ashby, the prosecution allege, dragged the woman, who he believed was a Muslim, back into the property.
The woman’s ordeal only came to an end, Mr Bradley said, because the defendant was “evidently spooked by a noise outside” and ran away, taking the victim’s jewellery and a mobile phone.
The woman then raised the alarm with the police, who arrived within minutes, the court heard.
Mr Bradley said there “can be no doubt” that Ashby was the man who attacked the woman, citing DNA evidence, fingerprints found on a vape left at the scene and a toothbrush found in the bathroom.
The woman also picked Ashby out as her attacker at an identity parade three days later.
Ashby was arrested in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham two days after the attack and when he was booked into custody told police “you never see any Englishmen in Perry Barr anymore.”
He otherwise answered no comment to all police questions except when he was shown a photograph of the woman, when he asked why she wasn’t wearing a hijab and said: “I don’t know who that woman is, as far as I’m aware.”
Mr Bradley said the Crown understood the issue in the case to be consent.
The trial continues.
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