The man who sparked protests outside Essex’s Bell Hotel—fuelling resistance to the Labour government’s ‘small boats’ migrant policy—went on trial on Tuesday, August 26th.
Hadush Kebatu from Ethiopia, aged between 38 and 41, is alleged to have approached two 14-year-old girls in a town centre, and said that he “wanted to have a baby with them” and before attempting to kiss them.
The illicit approach is reported to have occurred in Epping, Essex on July 7—within days of Kebatu making an illegal ‘small boat’ crossing into the UK—when the girls offered him pizza. After what the prosecution called his inappropriate comments, he invited them back to his room at the Bell Hotel.
Kebatu denies charges of sexual assault, inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, and harassment without violence. Once told the girls were 14, he responded, “age did not matter,” according to prosecutors. The following day, he made a second approach to the girls, touching one’s thigh, prompting his arrest.
Reports of the alleged assault prompted local protests in an attempt to close the hotel, spurring the local council to use planning law against the hotel’s owners. While this ruling still faces legal challenges, it could spell the beginning of the end for migrant hotels in Britain.
