Man in court over 'religiously motivated' sex attack on woman in Walsall
32 year-old John Ashby appeared at Birmingham Magistrates' Court.
Last updated 29th Oct 2025
A man was heckled and sworn at as he made his first appearance in court in connection with a sex attack on a woman in Walsall.
John Ashby was shouted at by a packed public gallery as he appeared at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, the day after he was charged by West Midlands Police in connection with an attack on a woman in her 20s in the Park Hall area of the town on Saturday.
He made no indication of pleas to charges of intentional penetration without consent, intentional touching without consent, strangulation, religiously-aggravated actual bodily harm and robbery of a mobile phone and jewellery.
Police earlier said they were called just after 7.15pm on October 25 after a woman was reported to be distressed in the street having said she had been raped and assaulted at a nearby property by a man she did not know.
The Sikh Federation previously said the victim was a Sikh student.
The 32-year-old, of no fixed address, wore a grey T-shirt and jogging bottoms in the dock during the 10-minute hearing.
As the hearing was coming to an end, Ashby was sworn at by a member of the public observing the proceedings and the defendant appeared to punch the glass separating the dock and the public gallery as he returned down to the cells.
District Judge Wain asked the man who swore to apologise, adding: "I understand feelings are running high but that is unacceptable."
He told Ashby he would be remanded into custody to appear at Birmingham Crown Court on November 26.