By Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) -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 found guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting a teenage girl and another woman.
The protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, about 20 miles (30 km) 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 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.
“This was an incident which became a cause of deep concern for the local community,” said Rebecca Mundy, a prosecutor in the case.
Immigration has become the dominant political issue in Britain, eclipsing concerns over a faltering economy, as the country faces both a record number of asylum claims and arrivals by migrants in small boats across the Channel.
Prosecutors said that on July 7 the girl had offered him pizza because he looked hungry and he had then tried to kiss her, put his hand on her thigh and said he wanted a baby with her and her friend, before inviting them back to the hotel.
The following day, he saw the girl, then in her school uniform, and attempted to kiss her again.
District Judge Christopher Williams said the girl was consistent throughout her evidence and he was not convinced that she or other witnesses fabricated their accounts.
Kebatu, who had only moved to the Bell Hotel about a week before the incident, denied all the accusations, saying he was “not a wild animal”.
The asylum seeker, who said he was a teacher in Ethiopia, told the court the woman had given him her phone number and had kept asking him to her house.
Kebatu’s arrest kicked off sometimes violent protests outside the hotel, and led the local council to win a temporary injunction to stop asylum seekers being housed there.
However, that was overturned last week after a government appeal. Opposition politicians accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer of caring more about the rights of migrants than local people.
Just over 32,000 migrants are housed in hotels across the country, according to figures up to the end of June. The government plans to stop the practice by the next election, due in 2029.
(Reporting by Michael Holden and Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by William James and Ros Russell)
