Government to try and deport asylum seeker guilty of Epping sexual assault
It's understood deportations regularly take place to the east African nation.
The Home Office will seek to deport Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu after the Ethiopian national was jailed for 12 months for sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl.
It is understood deportations regularly take place to the east African nation.
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% increase on the previous year, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets."
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said that asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, who has been jailed for 12 months for five offences including sexual assault, must be deported immediately.
He 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."
He said that towns like Epping in Essex, where Kebatu was housed in the Bell Hotel, "should never have been put in this position".
"Illegal immigrants should not be housed in hotels, they should be deported," he said.
Jailing Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu for 12 months, district judge Christopher Williams said the asylum seeker posed a "significant risk of reoffending".
Kebatu bowed his head to the judge before he was led to the cells at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court.
The judge said it appeared Kebatu had "attempted on at least one occasion to take your own life".
He said he must sign the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years, and made him subject of a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
He also ordered that Kebatu pay £650 prosecution costs and a £187 victim surcharge.
District Judge Christopher Williams said Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu "couldn't have anticipated" his offending "would cause such a response from the public".
"I've no doubt the author of the report is correct and you couldn't have anticipated that your offending behaviour as an asylum seeker housed at the Bell Hotel would cause such a response from the public," the judge told Chelmsford Magistrates' Court.
"Particularly in Epping, but also across the UK resulting in mass demonstrations and fear that children in the UK are not safe."
He said: "It's evident to me that your shame and remorse isn't because of the offences you've committed but because of the impact they've had."
The judge said Kebatu told a probation officer he was "aware of the unrest that (the) offending had caused" and knew that "other law-abiding asylum seekers were impacted by the offending".
District Judge Christopher Williams said he agreed with the author of a pre-sentence report that Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was "manipulative" when interviewed by a probation officer.
"That report indicates you were very reluctant to speak about the offending," the judge told Chelmsford Magistrates' Court.
"It suggests you raised a lack of English and mental health difficulties as reasons why you either can't remember what happened or cannot talk about the offending.
"The probation officer didn't consider this was accurate and considered you were being manipulative.
"I agree with that assessment."
Molly Dyas, mitigating for Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, said the defendant's "firm wish is to be deported as soon as possible".
She told Chelmsford Magistrates' Court: "That was his view before the trial, and that remains his view today."
She said he was an "asylum seeker who made a difficult and lengthy journey from east Africa including the last part on a small boat".
She said he had no previous convictions recorded "including in the European countries he travelled through to reach the UK".
Ms Dyas said Kebatu had "reported to the probation service that he's suffering from mental health difficulties".
The member of the public who was sexually assaulted by Kebatu said the defendant "did not even appear to know that what he's done was wrong".
In her victim personal statement, the woman, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "Since the incident, I feel both angered and frustrated.
"He did not even appear to know that what he's done was wrong.
"The incident has left me feeling worried to leave my house. I think about this incident most nights before bed."
A 14-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by asylum seeker hotel resident Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu has said in a victim personal statement that she is now "checking over my shoulder" when she is out with friends.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she prepared the statement "so that the man who did this to me understands what he has done to me - a 14-year-old girl".
She continued: "Every time I go out with my friends, I'm checking over my shoulder.
"Wearing a skirt now makes me feel vulnerable and exposed."
She added: "Seeing the bench (where the sexual assault took place) reminds me of everything that happened.
"I'm aware there have been protests because of what has happened - I'm lucky that I was not in the country when that happened."