12 years for rapist who strangled woman and threatened her with knives

Detectives have praised the strength of a rape survivor for helping lock up the man who abused her.

The woman was subjected to a series of terrifying ordeals at the hands of Ashley Chambers last December.

She was raped by Chambers at a Nottinghamshire address on two separate occasions during the month.

The 38-year-old then attacked the same woman again – this time threatening her with knives and a pair of scissors.

This escalated to the extent that Chambers’ victim lost consciousness when he decided to assault and then strangle her.

She eventually regained consciousness and managed to escape the address by jumping out a window, before going to seek help.

The police were then notified, with officers arriving at the address soon after and leading Chambers away in handcuffs.  

Based on the victim’s brave decision to disclose what happened to her, a series of charges were brought against Chambers.

He went on to plead guilty to two counts of rape, intentional strangulation, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and threatening a person with an offensive weapon.

Appearing before Nottingham Crown Court on Friday (8 August), Chambers, of Ilkeston Road, Stapleford, was jailed for 12 years.

He was also made subject of an indefinite restraining order, banning him from having any contact with the victim.

Detective Constable Jessica Ratcliffe, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:

“I’d like to firstly praise the victim in this case, whose brave decision to share her experiences helped put Ashley Chambers behind bars.

“After going through such a horrific ordeal, she deserves so much credit for doing what she’s done since then.

“In stark contrast to her strength, Chambers showed himself to be a complete coward, with his despicable behaviour rightly seeing him sent to prison.

“While no amount of time will ever make up for the pain he caused, we were really pleased to see the judge impose such a significant sentence, which we hope will provide the victim with some small degree of comfort.”