Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu denies sexually assaulting two teenagers and a woman in Epping last month
An Ethiopian man who became the focus of far-right demonstrations outside a hotel in Epping after being accused of sexually assaulting two teenagers has told a court he did not touch the girls.
“I’m not a wild animal. I can’t do these kind of things,” Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an asylum seeker housed at the Bell hotel in Epping, told his trial at Colchester magistrates court on Wednesday.
Speaking through an interpreter, he added: “This is anti-Christian – these are just children, innocent children.”
Kebatu, who told the court he was a sports teacher in Ethiopia, denies three counts of sexual assault against two 14-year-old girls and a woman in Epping town centre on 7 and 8 July this year. He also denies one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and one count of harassment without violence.
