An Ethiopian asylum seeker living in an Epping Hotel has been sentenced to 12 months in jail after being found guilty of five charges, including two of sexual assault.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl just days after arriving in the UK by small boat.
The judge told the 38-year-old his behaviour "really highlights the poor regard you must have for women", adding that he was "feeling sorry for yourself, knowing you were well and truly caught".
Kebatu has also been ordered to pay £650 in prosecution costs, a £187 victim surcharge, and he must sign the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years and is subject to a five-year sexual harm prevention order.
He faced a three-day trial at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court earlier this month, where 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 reportedly shook his head when some pieces of evidence were read to the court, while at other times he watched vividly from inside the glass dock.
On July 8, Kebatu tried to kiss a teenage girl in Epping, Essex, and put his hand on her thigh and brushed her hair.
Separately, he was found guilty of trying to kiss an adult woman and put his hand on her leg, who distracted the man by talking to him about his CV.
The woman said she felt "shocked" and "uncomfortable" about the situation as she called the police.
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Kebatu has been sentenced to 12 months in jail
| CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICEHer phone call was played to the court, where she could be heard shouting: "Get away from the kids."
Prosecutor at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court, Stuart Cowen, explained that Kebatu told the author of a pre-sentence report about him and that he "felt very sad and felt a lot of remorse".
However, Mr Cowen added: "The word manipulative is used within the report.
"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."
Multiple protests have happened outside The Bell Hotel in Epping since the assault
| PAThe 14-year-old schoolgirl says she now feels "exposed" whenever she is in her school uniform.
She told the court: "Every time I go out with my friends, I am checking over my shoulder.
"If I do go out, I go home to change what I'm wearing so it's not school uniform. My school skirt now makes me feel exposed."
The adult victim said she wants Kebatu to "feel guilty for what he put us through," adding: "How would he feel if this was his mother, his daughter, his wife?"
The court heard that Kebatu wants to be deported from the UK
| PASince the incident, the victim now feels "worried to leave [her] house" and thinks "about [the] incident most nights before bed".
Kebatu's firm now wishes to be deported from the UK "as soon as possible", with his defence barrister, Molly Dyas, saying he is "suffering with his mental health".
While handing his sentence, District Judge Christopher Williams said: "Your offending as an asylum seeker housed at The Bell Hotel caused such a response from the public, particularly in Epping, but also across the United Kingdom.
"It resulted in mass demonstrations and the fear that children in the United Kingdom are not safe."
Kebatu has been found guilty of five charges
|ESSEX POLICE
Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: "Justice has now been served and the Government must now deport this criminal immediately. The reality is this vile crime should never have been allowed to happen.
"In Epping, people protested for weeks because to close the Bell Hotel, but Labour's response was not to listen, rather to drag the local council through the courts to keep the hotel open and silence the local community.
"Towns like Epping should never have been put in this position. Illegal immigrants should not be housed in hotels, they should be deported.
"The Conservatives will pass our Deportation Bill, shut the hotels, ensure every foreign national offender is removed from Britain with no exceptions, and restore the rule of law so that towns in Britain never have to go through this again."
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said: "This truly despicable man must be booted out the country immediately. As I've said for years, I am sick to death of men like this - from backwards cultures - breaking into our country on small boats.
"It is shameful that parents were smeared as 'racist' for protesting against appalling behaviour by small boat migrants. They're not - they're good parents who want to keep their children safe.
"No human rights treaty is more important than the safety of the British people. Every illegal migrant must be deported from the country immediately."