Victims' Commissioner for England & Wales

A sexual predator, racist and abuser of women, John Ashby was sentenced by Judge Justice Pepperall to a full life sentence with a minimum of 21 years in jail. Speaking on this, the Director of Tell MAMA, Iman Atta OBE said: "This British Sikh woman has demonstrated enormous resilience, bravery and courage in holding Josh Ashby to account for his sexual hate crimes. He was driven by racism, anti-Muslim and gender hate and he randomly followed a South Asian female to her home and subjected her to trauma that is unfathomable. The victim deserves all the respect, admiration, care and honour that we can give her since she is a true inspiration to many women in holding this monster to account." "We stand with our Sikh communities during this difficult trial. We see your fear and recognise that anti-Sikh sentiment is a unique danger that must be met with dedicated resources and stronger safeguards." "It is also clear that gender violence continues to be a significant factor and cancer in our society. We also understand the strong links between racism, religious hate crimes and the impacts on female members of diverse communities. This case demonstrates that link."