LONDON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — A man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Epping, Essex of east England, following a series of protests outside a local hotel accommodating asylum seekers, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Thursday.
On July 7, Hadush Kebatu, 41, tried to kiss a young girl on a bench in Epping High Street while making “sexually explicit comments,” and the following afternoon, he encountered the same girl and “again repeatedly tried to kiss her before sexually assaulting her,” the CPS said.
According to BBC, Kebatu was also convicted of sexual assault of the girl, attempted sexual assault of the girl, inciting the girl to engage in sexual activity, harassment of the girl without violence and sexual assault of a woman, who notified police.
“The CPS is determined to pursue justice for victims, working with our law enforcement partners to hold sex offenders accountable,” said Rebecca Mundy, deputy chief crown prosecutor with CPS East of England.
The CPS report also noted that both the girl and the woman, who were unknown to each other, provided strikingly similar accounts of the actions and words Kebatu used.
Protests centered on the Bell Hotel in Epping after Kebatu was arrested, and later charged on July 13, with sexually assaulting the girl. On July 17, eight police officers were injured during clashes with protesters outside the hotel.
Epping Forest District Council had obtained a temporary High Court injunction requiring migrants to leave the Bell Hotel by Sept. 12. The Court of Appeal overturned the order last week and also decided the case could not be referred to the Supreme Court.
Home Office data in August showed that a total of 50,271 people, most of whom have successfully claimed asylum, have arrived in Britain by small boat via the English Channel since the Labour took power in July 2024.
“The government will be hoping that its enforcement activities and the new returns agreement with France will reduce the number of people applying for asylum and requiring accommodation, but there is no sign of this in the data so far,” Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford told Xinhua.
Anti-immigration protests are continuing across England, where the Saint George’s Cross and the Union Jack have been displayed along streets. Supporters view the flags as expressions of national pride, while critics argue they are being used to send an unwelcoming message to asylum seekers and “illegal immigrants.”
