LONDON: An Ethiopian asylum seeker, whose arrest in July sparked angry protests outside the hotel near London where he and other migrants were being housed, was jailed for 12 months on Tuesday for sexually assaulting a teenage girl and another woman.
The protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, about 30km north of the British capital, became a touchpaper for a string of country-wide demonstrations amid rising tensions over immigration.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was convicted at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court earlier this month of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman, attempting to sexually assault the girl, inciting her to engage in sexual activity and one count of harassment.
Kebatu had acknowledged that he was aware of the unrest his offending had caused and that other law-abiding asylum seekers had been impacted by it as it drew a response from the public not just in Epping but across the country, Judge Christopher Williams told him.
“It resulted in mass demonstrations and the fear that children in the United Kingdom are not safe,” the judge said.
