An asylum seeker guilty of sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl has been jailed for 12 months.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu arrived in the UK on a small boat after crossing the English Channel just days before the assaults.
Kebatu, from Ethiopia, told two teenagers he wanted to ‘have a baby with each of them’ before trying to kiss them, putting his hand on one of the girls’ thighs and stroking her hair.
He also sexually assaulted a woman by trying to kiss her, putting his hand on her leg and telling her she was pretty.
Kebatu’s crimes sparked major protests outside the Bell Inn hotel in Epping, Essex, which is where he was living at the time of the assaults.
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Those protests and counter-protests then spread to further ‘asylum hotels’ across the country.
As a response the local council sought an injunction trying to ban the hotel from being used to house asylum seekers – but this was overturned after the government appealed.
Kebatu, 38, denied the charges but was found guilty at Chelmsford magistrates court after District Judge Christopher Williams took just half an hour to decide the verdict.
He was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, one count of attempted sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, and one count of harassment without violence.
Kebatu returned to the same court this morning where he was handed a 12-month prison sentence.
The woman who was sexually assaulted by Kebatu said in her victim impact statement she had felt ‘angered and frustrated’ since the attack, adding: ‘He did not even appear to know that what he’s done was wrong.
‘The incident has left me feeling worried to leave my house. I think about this incident most nights before bed.’
His 14-year-old victim said she is now ‘checking over her shoulder’ when she goes out with friends. She prepared her statement ‘so that the man who did this to me understands what he has done to me – a 14-year-old girl’.
She added: ‘Wearing a skirt now makes me feel vulnerable and exposed.
‘Seeing the bench (where the sexual assault took place) reminds me of everything that happened.
‘I’m aware there have been protests because of what has happened – I’m lucky that I was not in the country when that happened.’
A pre-sentencing report said Kebatu had said he ‘felt very sad and felt a lot of remorse’ – a stance described as ‘manipulative’ by the report’s author.
Stuart Cowen, prosecuting, told the court: ‘There’s also comments made by Mr Kebatu when he stated he didn’t know the UK was so strict even though he knew the Ethiopian age of consent was 18.
‘He said because of the situation Epping is in chaos and he had got a lot of migrants in trouble.’
Molly Dyas, defending, said Kebatu’s ‘firm wish is to be deported as soon as possible’, and that he has been ‘suffering from mental health difficulties’.
She added: ‘That was his view before the trial, and that remains his view today.’
She also said he had no previous convictions either in Ethiopia or the other European countries he travelled through to reach the UK.
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