An asylum seeker tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl and told her he wanted to have a baby with her and her friend, a court has heard.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, is said to have put his hand on the schoolgirl’s thigh and repeatedly invited her back to the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex.
The court heard he was being housed days after arriving in the UK on a small boat. His arrest on July 8 sparked a huge anti-migrant protest in the town and prompted town hall bosses to seek an injunction to close the hotel.
Stuart Cowen, prosecuting at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, said Kebatu made ‘inappropriate comments’ to the girl and her female friend.
‘It’s the Crown’s case he said he wanted to have a baby with each of them and attempted to kiss them,’ he said.
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‘He invited them back to the Bell Hotel where he was a resident, having recently arrived in the UK.
‘These advances were rejected, and it was made clear to him (the girl) and her friends were 14 years of age.’
In a police video interview played in court, the girl said she was sitting together with friends on a bench eating pizza at the time.
She said: ‘He’s hovering, he’s come over, he looked hungry so we was like “do you want a slice?”
‘He sat down eating a slice. Out of nowhere he said, “I want one baby from you and one baby from your friend”.
‘I put my boy mate between us.’
The girl said the migrant ‘did try and kiss me’ even after her male friend had moved to sit between them.
She said: ‘Everywhere we went, he was round the corner.’
The girl said that a man bought the asylum seeker a Coke drink, and the migrant ‘tried getting me and my friend to drink it’.
She said Kebatu ‘kept wanting us to come back to the Bell Hotel with him’.
The teenager told police she ‘froze’ when the alleged incident happened.
She went on to say: ‘He just kept staring at me and kept asking me to drink his beer.’
The girl went on: ‘We kept saying “no, we’re 14” but I didn’t want to argue back in case anything escalated – but I did try to stay as calm as possible.
‘I said “no I’m 14” and he kept saying “no, no, it doesn’t matter you could come back to the Bell Hotel with me”.’
The girl told police she got ‘really creeped out’ by the alleged incident.
Kebatu denies three counts of sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, and one count of harassment without violence.
Another man who was living at the former Bell Hotel, Syrian national Mohammed Sharwarq, has separately been charged with seven offences.
Several other men have been charged over alleged disorder outside the hotel.
Kebatu’s trial, which is expected to last two days, continues.
Mr Cowen told the court the case has ‘attracted quite a lot of publicity because of the defendant’s personal circumstances’ – with the alleged incidents sparking protests and counter-protests outside the former Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex.
Phillip Curson, 52, appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court this morning to deny a charge of violent disorder after a protest outside The Bell Hotel on July 17.
He was granted conditional bail ahead of a case management hearing on September 22.
Similar protests have been held outside hotels across the country housing asylum seekers.
Somani Hotels Limited, which owns the Bell Hotel, will have its bid to appeal against a ruling that it cannot house asylum seekers at the site heard by the Court of Appeal on Thursday, according to court listings.
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