Three men have been jailed today for their roles in violent disorder outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Essex – including one who climbed onto a roof and attempted to ring a bell to encourage the mayhem.
The men’s sentencing, at Chelmsford Crown Court on Monday, was the first for violent disorder outside the Bell Hotel in Epping.
Multiple demonstrations have been held outside the hotel after asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu sexually assaulted a woman and 14-year-old girl in the town.
The 38-year-old Ethiopian national, who arrived in the UK on a small boat days before the incidents in July, was jailed for 12 months at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court last month.
Martin Peagram, Dean Smith and Stuart Williams were all in court today to be sentenced, having pleaded guilty to violent disorder at earlier hearings.
Prosecutor Gordon Carse said: ‘This case is about the disorder arising from the high profile protest in Epping outside the Bell Hotel on July 17 this year.’
The protest was the third in a series which are ‘still ongoing’, he added, with the first two on July 12 and July 13 having been ‘relatively peaceful’.
Essex Police estimated around 500 protesters attended at the height of the incident on July 17, with a flat bed van carrying a sign that said ‘protect our kids’.
Essex Police estimated around 500 protesters turned up at the height of a protest about immigrants living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, on July 17
Around 50 counter protesters arrived and police ‘worked to maintain public order and keep the two groups separate’ but ‘police officers were subjected to sustained attacks for over four hours’.
Judge Jamie Sawyer said painter and decorator Williams ‘got onto the roof of the Bell Hotel and attempted to ring the bell thereon’.
The 36-year-old, of Thornwood, Epping also kicked out at an officer and got onto the roof of a school for children with special needs, he noted.
The judge jailed Williams for two years and four months.
Roofer Peagram, 33, of Loughton, kicked a police carrier, kicked out at officers and threw a can at police.
Judge Sawyer jailed the defendant for two years and two months.
Smith was seen punching an officer’s shield and pushing and shoving officers.
The Waitrose worker, 51, of Epping, was jailed for one year and ten months.
Stuart Williams, 36, was jailed for two years and four months after he ‘got onto the roof of the Bell Hotel and attempted to ring the bell. He also kicked at an officer and got onto the roof of a school for children with special needs
Martin Peagram, 33, was locked up for two years and two months after he kicked a police carrier, kicked out at officers and threw a can at police
Fellow defendant Dean Smith was jailed for 22 months after he was spotted punching a policeman’s shield and pushing and shoving officers
Judge Sawyer told the defendants: ‘Each of you – what you did went beyond protest and that became criminal when you acted as you did.’
He said he was ‘satisfied this was racially motivated at least in part’.
Kevin Toomey, representing Williams, said that ‘protect our kids’ was the reason for the defendant’s involvement, and he ‘got carried away’.
Richard Padley, mitigating for Peagram, said the defendant has two children, was the main breadwinner and described his own behaviour as ‘idiotic’.
Sam Thomas, for Smith, said his client had no previous convictions and cares for his 74-year-old mother.
Defendant Luke Fleming, 21, appeared separately before the court on Monday.
Fleming, of Buckhurst Hill, pleaded not guilty to a charge of violent disorder and was bailed until a trial to take place from March 23 next year.
Ethiopian Hadush Kebatu, 41, was jailed for a year at Chelmsford Magistrates Court on September 23 after he tried to kiss a schoolgirl and then groped a woman who came to her aid.
A flat bed van carrying a sign that said ‘protect our kids’ was paraded at the protest, Chelmsford Crown Court was told today
Protesters, some wearing masks, confronted police officers during the protest in Epping after a Bell Hotel resident was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl
The sports teacher, who had arrived in the UK on a small boat days earlier and now faces automatic deportation due to the length of his sentence, claimed he ‘didn’t know how strict the UK was’.
He had 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 was found guilty after a trial.
A week later, another Bell Hotel resident, Mohammed Sharwarq, 32, was jailed for 16 weeks and ordered to pay hundreds of pounds in compensation to victims after he admitted two counts of common assault and four of assault by beating.
The Syrian national slapped another resident on the back, kicked him in the back of the neck and punched him in the face in three separate incidents.
Sharwarq also slapped another resident in the back, punched a cleaner in the arm and grabbed a chef before trying to slap them in the face, Chelmsford Magistrates Court was told.
Anti-immigration protests in Epping have cost police more than £1.6million so far, it emerged at a local crime panel meeting late last month.
Essex Police ran up the huge bill after the Bell Hotel, which homes around 150 asylum seekers, become the focal point of a series of intense protests and counter-protests from mid-July.
Thousands have attended marches, sparked after Kebatu was arrested, leading to ‘protest fatigue’ among the policing team.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38,was jailed for a year last month for the sexual assault on the teenager and a woman who went to help her
Court artist sketch of Mohammed Sharwarq (centre), 32, another Bell Hotel resident who was jailed for 16 weeks and ordered to pay hundreds of pounds in compensation to victims after he admitted two counts of common assault and four of assault by beating
Roger Hirst, the police, fire and crime commissioner for Essex, said the force would only receive government help if costs hit £4m.
