Violence erupted during a protest outside a migrant hotel in Essex on Thursday evening after an asylum seeker appeared in court accused of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl.
Hundreds of protesters, many draped in the Union Jack or flag of St George, gathered outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, which has been used to house migrants for a number of years.
Men with their faces hidden kicked Essex police riot vans while others climbed on top of the vehicles and smashed their wing mirrors. Some launched projectiles at officers.
MIKE RUANE/STORY PICTURE AGENCY
MIKE RUANE/STORY PICTURE AGENCY
Two police vans were seen on video hitting protesters as they made their way from the area.
Officers Essex police said they had closed a section of High Road, Epping, “for the safety of the public and those protesting”. At least one man was arrested on suspicion of affray.
The unrest followed another protest outside the hotel on Tuesday prompted by the arrest of Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, an Ethiopian asylum seeker.
He appeared at Chelmsford magistrates’ court on Thursday charged with three sexual assaults, harassment and inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity.
Kebatu, who denies wrongdoing, was remanded in custody until a trial next month.
The case led two MPs and the leader of the local council to call for the Bell Hotel to be shut down.
The Bell Hotel in Epping has been used for housing immigrants for a number of years
ALAMY
About 400 protesters gathered on Thursday, and were met by about forty counterprotesters.
A 74-year-old retired company director, who declined to give his name, told the Daily Mail: “We are all absolutely sick of it. They should all be sent back to where they’ve come from. If they came in a small boat from France, then they should be sent back to France.
“It’s absolutely outrageous that we have to pay for them — the food, their accommodation, their phones, everything. How is it that our children can’t walk home from school without being attacked?”
A mother of three who also did not want to be named said: “This is not about being racist, it’s about protecting our children. There are a load of schools near here and there are all these single men here in the hotel and no one knows who they are. They’ve not been screened, or checked or anything.”
Officers created a protective ring around the anti-racism demonstrators after they became surrounded by the larger group at the entrance to Epping town centre. Video showed counterprotesters being escorted away in police vans, and holding signs emblazoned with “stop the far right”.
Police shielded a group of anti-racist counterprotesters
IAN DAVIDSON/ALAMY
In a separate incident on Tuesday, a man was arrested after allegedly shouting racial abuse at the hotel and damaging the property.
On Saturday, two security guards at the hotel were attacked at a bus stop. The men received hospital treatment for serious injuries.
At the protest earlier in the week, one woman told The Times that she was accosted by a group of demonstrators with an XL bully dog as she walked home. After she asked them to bring the dog to heel, they began filming her, asking her whether she supported the migrants’ right to live in the hotel and telling her that the migrants would abuse her and her daughter.
“I would much prefer it if the hotel was turned back to how it was before,” said the woman, who asked not to be named. “But at the same time I’ve never had any problem with them, and I felt far more intimidated by those protesters than I ever have done by the migrants.”
Chief Superintendent Simon Anslow of Essex Police said: “Disruption and offending is never an appropriate response, no matter the strength of feeling in this case, and on this issue. People protesting peacefully, lawfully and responsibly cause us — and the wider public — no concern.
“However, we can never and will never tolerate criminal behaviour of any sort and anyone identified as committing crime will be dealt with robustly.”