Protests at Bell hotel in Epping for fifth time on Sunday as others demonstrated in Norfolk and London
Hundreds of people gathered outside a hotel in Epping on Sunday for the fifth time to demonstrate over the premises being used to house asylum seekers, as protests spread to other hotels over the weekend.
A large police presence containing officers from multiple forces restricted contact between anti- and pro-immigrant protesters, with Essex police saying restrictions were necessary after what it described as repeated serious disruption, violence and harm to the community since the first demonstration took place on 13 July.
Two men were charged with public order offences after a protest of about 400 anti-immigration and 250 counter-protesters outside a hotel in Diss on Saturday, Norfolk constabulary said. There was a further protest outside a hotel in Canary Wharf in London on Sunday, with the number of protesters appearing to be in the low hundreds.
The demonstration in Epping in Essex on Sunday – where as many as 500 anti-immigrant protesters gathered behind metal barriers outside the Bell hotel – was the latest in a series of protests that began after an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault for allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl. Hadush Kebatu, 41, from Ethiopia, has denied the offences and is in custody.
