Epping hotel asylum seeker jailed after sexually assaulting woman and 14-year-old girl
An asylum seeker has been sentenced to 12 months in prison after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Essex.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu had been staying at The Bell Hotel in Epping, and the incident fuelled weeks of protests at the site.
The Ethiopian national was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and harassment without violence.
Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court was told he tried to kiss the teenager, put his hand on her thigh and brushed her hair after she offered him pizza.
Kebatu, 41, also told the girl and her friend he wanted to have a baby with them and invited them back to the hotel.
The incident happened on 7 July, about a week after he arrived in the UK on a boat.
The girl later told police she “froze” and got “really creeped out”, telling him: “No, I’m 14.”
Kebatu was also found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman – putting his hand on her thigh and trying to kiss her – when she tried to intervene after seeing him talking to the girl again the following day.
He denied all the charges but was convicted earlier this month.
Kebatu, who was a “teacher of sports” in his home country, wants to be deported, his lawyer Molly Dyas told the court on Tuesday, calling it his “firm wish” and a view he held “before the trial”.
Prosecutor Stuart Cowen, discussing a pre-sentence report, said Kebatu admitted “he didn’t know the UK was so strict even though he knew the Ethiopian age of consent was 18”.
Protesters near The Bell Hotel in Epping in July. Pic: PA
Police officers and protesters outside The Bell Hotel, Epping in August. Pic: PA
Kebatu understood that “the situation Epping is in chaos”, because of what he did, and he “had got a lot of migrants in trouble,” Mr Cowen said.
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