A migrant who tried to kiss a schoolgirl before groping a woman who came to her aid was jailed for 12 months today.
Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu, 41, sparked a huge anti-migrant demonstration in Epping, Essex, and prompted the local council to try and shut down the town’s Bell Hotel where he was a resident after his arrest in July.
He made inappropriate comments and tried to kiss the 14-year-old as she sat eating pizza with friends on a bench after school.
His advances were rejected again when he saw her the following day – and a woman who intervened when he put his hand on the girl’s thigh then became the focus of his attention as he touched her leg and tried to kiss her.
Kebatu, who wore a grey sweater and tracksuit bottoms, looked around nervously as he entered the courtroom.
District Judge Christopher Williams said Kebatu’s behaviour had been ‘disgusting and sickening’ as he became aroused while harassing the girl, who he approached on consecutive days despite knowing ‘full well she was only 14’.
‘You acted ignorantly and repulsively. The fact you tried to suggest she was the one acting inappropriately to you is just as appalling,’ he added.
‘It really highlights the poor regard you must have for women.’
Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu (pictured) who tried to kiss a schoolgirl before groping a woman who came to her aid was jailed for 12 months today
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, was arrested in Epping after a woman raised concerns about his behaviour towards a teenage girl
While accepting the defendant couldn’t have anticipated his behaviour ‘would cause such a response from the public, he went on to criticise him for portraying himself as a ‘victim’ and a ‘scapegoat’ to a probation officer.
Kebatu was also ‘manipulative’ in the same interview by claiming claimed he could not remember what had happened, blaming his poor English and mental health issues.
The defendant had ‘repeatedly cried’ and said he was ‘ashamed’ but the judge added: ‘It is evident that your shame and remorse is not because of the offences you’ve committed but because of the impact they have had.’
Prosecutor Stuart Cowen told the court the defendant had claimed he ‘didn’t know how strict the UK was’.
Kebatu felt ‘remorse’, he added, saying: ‘He says because of the situation, Epping was in chaos and he’d got a lot of other migrants in trouble.’
The teenage girl – who can’t be identified for legal reasons – said in a victim impact statement read out by the prosecutor: ‘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 woman Kebatu assaulted said in her statement: ‘I am angry because he didn’t appear to know what he’d done was wrong.’
Mr Kebatu is pictured in a court sketch from August 26
She added: ‘I want him to feel guilty for what he put us through.
‘How would he feel if this was his mother, his daughter, his wife?’
Molly Dyas, defending, said he client had a ‘difficult and lengthy journey through Europe to get to the UK.
But she said his mental health had suffered, adding: ‘His firm wish is to be deported as soon as possible.’
Extraordinary body-worn police footage taken as police arrested Kebatu showed him breaking down in tears as he was handcuffed at the side of the road.
The defendant denied three counts of sexual assault, one of attempted sexual assault, a charge of harassment and another of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
But he was convicted following a trial at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court and remanded in custody while awaiting sentence.
Under current law, foreign offenders who receive a prison sentence of 12 months or more can be deported automatically.
Kebatu claimed during his trial that he was a teacher in his native Ethiopia and would never attack children
Deportations only occur for sentences under a year in certain cases, for example if it involves a persistent offender or they have caused serious harm.
Last month, the government unveiled plans to immediately kick out rapists, drug dealers and burglars who receive custodial sentences, with a lifelong ban on returning.
But the most violent criminals – including murderers, foreign-born terrorists and other serving life – will still need to finish their sentences before being ejected.
Kebatu, who was helped by an interpreter in court, showed no reaction as District Judge Christopher Williams delivered the verdicts on September 4.
The judge warned Kebatu an ‘immediate custodial sentence’ was the most likely outcome, adding: ‘It is just a question of how long.’
Kebatu had arrived in the UK in a dinghy just eight days before he began harassing the teenager.
Opening the trial last month, prosecutor Stuart Cowen said: ‘The court will hear from a number of witnesses that on July 7, the defendant was in Epping.
‘The complainant, a 14-year-old girl, will state that her group were on a bench eating pizza and were approached by the defendant who appeared hungry.
The small-boat migrant sexually assaulted the 14-year-old schoolgirl just days after he arrived in Britain
‘They offered him some pizza, which he accepted.
‘He sat next to the girl on the bench and, without any encouragement, began to make inappropriate comments to her and her friends.
‘He said he wanted to have a baby with the girl and attempted to kiss her. He invited the group back to the Bell Hotel where he was a resident, having recently arrived in the UK.
‘His advances were rejected and it was made clear to him that the girl and her friend were 14 years of age. His response was that ‘age did not matter’.’
The court heard the girl and her friends then got up and walked to Tesco, with Kebatu following them.
‘There was no actual sexual assault on that date but the Crown will say the attempted sexual assault was the attempt to kiss her,’ Mr Cowen said.
‘On July 8, the defendant saw the girl and her friends on the bench and approached them and the same kind of behaviour was repeated. Unlike the previous day, the girl was wearing her school uniform.
‘Similar advances were made and rejected. Such was the girl’s discomfort that a boy came and sat between the girl and the defendant.
Court artist sketch of Hadush Kebatu, a resident of the Bell Hotel in Epping in Essex, in court on August 26
‘The defendant then tried to get the girl to kiss the boy. She didn’t want to do this because he is a friend only but, in an attempt to discourage the defendant, she kissed the boy on the cheek.
‘She will tell the court that while this was happening, the defendant appeared to be sexually aroused.’
The court heard a woman saw what was happening and tried to intervene – but Kebatu sexually assaulted her by putting his hand on her leg and trying to kiss her.
The woman went to a nearby fish and chip shop to get some paper so she could take the girls’ details but when she returned she saw the defendant putting his hand on the girl’s thigh.
Mr Cowen said: ‘The woman was angry and confronted the defendant, saying she would call the police. He then ran off and she pursued him.’
Police were called and made the arrest, the prosecutor added.
Giving evidence by video link, the girl said: ‘He came and sat next to me on the bench. Out of nowhere he said ‘I want a baby with you and with your friend’. He tried kissing me multiple times so we decided to leave.
‘The next day he came and sat next to us again and said ‘I want a baby from you, we could make lovely Jamaican babies’.
Councillors in Epping won an injunction to shut down the Bell Hotel, where migrants including Mr Kebatu were housed before it was overturned at the Court of Appeal. The case will be heard at the High Court next month
‘I was like ‘I’m 14, this is really weird’. But he said ‘Age doesn’t matter’.
‘He kept on talking about having babies with me and trying to kiss me. I was in shock thinking ‘What are you doing?’
‘I didn’t want to argue too much in case things escalated. I was really creeped out.’
She added that when the man touched her thigh, she ‘froze’ and her ‘mind just went blank’ because she was ‘totally shocked’.
In a police interview, a friend of the girl’s said: ‘He told us his name was Thomas. He said he had paid 2,500 euros to get on a rubber dinghy to get to this country and had only been here a few days. He said he came from Kenya.
‘He was trying to give us some of his drink. He was asking us what school we go to.
‘He told the girl ‘Come back to Africa, you’ll be a good wife’ and kept trying to kiss her.
‘He was a weirdo. I didn’t really trust him. I wished he would just go away.’
Demonstrators wave flags and set off flares during a protest outside the Bell Hotel in Epping
Another friend of the girl’s said: ‘The guy came over to us and said he came to the town not that long ago, maybe four or five days, and he wanted pizza. He said it was a very nice town with lovely people.
‘Then he started saying the girl was very pretty and said he wanted to have babies with her. He stroked her hair.
‘He said ‘Do you want to go to the Bell Hotel with me and have babies?’ The girl was saying ‘No’.’
A woman who saw the assault on July 8 told the court how the defendant made excuses when she intervened.
‘The girl looked uncomfortable. I saw her stand up and move his hand away from her leg,’ she said.
‘He is a grown man. She is a child. That is not appropriate.
‘I asked [Kebatu] what was going on. He said it was nothing. I told him it didn’t look like nothing and that she was in a school uniform.
‘He said she was flirting with him. This made me feel disgusted and angry. I called him a paedophile and began shouting.
After the injunction was granted, protesters held a demonstration outside London’s High Court
‘He tried to say that I was wrong and that it was a mistake but I just continued to shout and make a scene.
‘He ran away, so I called the police and followed him. When I caught up he started begging, pleading and apologising, saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it was a mistake’.’
Kebatu, who claimed he was a trained teacher in his home country, denied the allegations in court.
He said: ‘I am not a wild animal. I can’t do these kind of things. These are children, the next generation. I am a Christian, it is not in my culture.
‘This is the UK, I have a right of movement. I was walking with my friend. I am not a criminal.’
In his closing speech, prosecutor Stuart Cowen said the children approached by Mr Kebatu on 7 July had been trying to help him by giving him food.
‘His response [was] to abuse their good intentions and sexually corrupt them,’ he added.
The prosecutor dismissed the defendant’s claim that the adult victim had conspired with the children to frame him, saying the theory was ‘so incredible that it lacks any credibility whatsoever’.
Molly Dyas, defending, argued the evidence was ‘so inconsistent’ that her client ought to be acquitted. He wasn’t harassing them but came across them during ‘meanders around Epping’, she said.
He ‘begged’ the woman not to call police because he was worried about his asylum claim, the barrister said.
Family of the 14-year-old girl and the woman Kebatu assaulted were in court for the verdict.
After the hearing, Essex Police Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hooper paid tribute to both victims and all the witnesses who ‘came forward and ensured the evidence put before the court was strong and true’.
He added: ‘We’re acutely aware that this incident has attracted widespread public interest.
‘We have always said that we treat and investigate every report made to us without fear or favour.’
A legal challenge against the Bell Hotel housing asylum seekers will be heard at the High Court on 15 October.
Epping Forest District Council secured a temporary injunction stopping The Bell Hotel in Epping housing migrants in August but this was overturned at the Court of Appeal.
The Conservative-run authority could still be granted a full injunction if successful at a three-day hearing in London next month.
The decision to rule in favour of the hotel chain and Home Office sparked outrage, with protests spreading to cities across the UK amid accusations the government was ‘taking the side of migrants over Britons’.
A second man who was staying at the site, Syrian migrant Mohammed Sharwarq, has also been charged with sexual assault, which he denies. Last month, he admitted six charges of common assault.
Essex Police have arrested more than 30 people in connection with disorder outside the hotel and charged more than 20 of them.
