The Home Office will seek to deport an asylum seeker after he was jailed for a year for sexual assaults on a woman and a 14-year-old girl that led to nationwide protests.
Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat days before the incidents, was found guilty of five offences after a three-day trial at Chelmsford and Colchester magistrates’ courts.
It is understood that the Home Office will look to deport Kebatu, with the Government conducting returns and deportations to the African nation regularly.
Today, a judge told the 38-year-old his behaviour ‘really highlights the poor regard you must have for women’, adding Kebatu was ‘feeling sorry for yourself, knowing you were well and truly caught’.
The sentencing hearing at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court was told Kebatu wants to be deported after serving his time in prison, with his defence lawyer Molly Dyas adding it is a view he held ‘before the trial’.
However the Home Office may struggle to deport the Ethiopian as the UK has no formal returns agreement with the African nation.
Some regions are considered unsafe and Kebatu could seek to appeal his removal on the grounds of persecution or family life under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Ethiopia is not one of the 23 countries subject to the ‘deport now, appeal later’ policy.
Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu was jailed for 12 months today for sexually assaulting a schoolgirl and groping
Kebatu is seen on police bodycam footage during his arrest in Epping after a woman raised concerns about his behaviour towards a teenage girl
Judge Williams said there ‘remains little known’ about Kebatu as he ‘refused to engage and open up’ to the probation officer, adding ‘I had anticipated that there would be evidence of some traumatic life experiences’.
Prosecutor Stuart Cowen told the court the defendant had claimed he ‘didn’t know how strict the UK was’.
Kebatu, who wore a grey sweater and tracksuit bottoms, looked around nervously as he entered the courtroom.
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.’
The judge said Kebatu told a probation officer he was ‘aware of the unrest that (the) offending had caused’ and he knew ‘other law-abiding asylum seekers were impacted by the offending’.
Kebatu, who the court heard had tried to take his own life while on remand in prison, showed no emotion as he was told his sentence.
Judge Williams said he couldn’t suspend the sentence as there was ‘no realistic prospect’ of him being rehabilitated. ‘You pose a significant risk of reoffending,’ he added.
Kebatu, who was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and told to sign the sex offenders register, must also pay £650 court costs.
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 girl added: ‘Seeing the bench (where the sexual assault took place) reminds me of everything that happened.’
The woman Kebatu assaulted said in her statement: ‘I am angry because he didn’t appear to know what he’d done was wrong.’
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?’
Mr Kebatu is pictured in a court sketch from August 26
Molly Dyas, defending, said her 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.
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.
‘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.
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
‘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.
‘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.’
A Home Office spokeswoman said: ‘It is our longstanding policy not to comment on individual cases, but when foreign nationals commit serious crimes in our country, we will always do everything in our power to deport them.
‘This Government deported almost 5,200 foreign national offenders in its first year in office, a 14 per cent increase on the previous year, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.’
Kebatu’s sentence comes as new rules come into force on Tuesday that could see foreign prisoners deported at an earlier point in their sentence to free up jail space.
Those who are serving fixed-term sentences with no right to stay in the UK could be deported after serving 30 per cent of their jail term, instead of 50 per cent currently.
Kebatu was remanded into custody on July 10, meaning he has passed the 30 per cent mark and is eligible for deportation.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, when justice secretary, also announced plans for further reforms in August to deport eligible foreign prisoners immediately when they receive a custodial sentence.
This law change is included in the Sentencing Bill, currently going through Parliament.
