Epping Hotel protesters get longer jail sentences than the migrant who sparked dysfunction after he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old lady

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 rang 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’.

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’.

Williams, 36, who has eight previous convictions, was seen among a group of protesters shoulder charging the police line. Draped in a Union Flag, he was ‘standing aggressively’ and pushing and calling out at officers.

He was later seen at Tower school – a secondary school for learning disabled children – ringing a bell in response to the crowds chants, ‘urging them on’. He was arrested at another protest on July 20.

Judge Jamie Sawyer said the painter and decorator, of Epping, also kicked out at an officer and got onto the roof of a school for children with special needs, he noted.

He jailed the defendant for two years and four months.

Roofer Peagram, 33, of Loughton, has 14 previous convictions for 26 offences including weapon offences in 2011 and 2019 and a warning for public order offence in 2008.

He was wearing a white t-shirt and black baseball cap during the protest.

The prosecutor said: ‘[He was ] kicking and pushing police officers, gesturing at others to join in and come forward.’

Minutes later he was among protesters attacking a police van. He also threw a can at officers. 

Peagram – who looked upset when the court was told his family, including his disabled daughter, rely on him – was arrested on July 28 at an address in Stansted.

Judge Sawyer jailed him for two years and two months.

Smith wore a black hoodie on the day of the protest and was seen punching an officer’s shield and pushing and shoving officers.

The Waitrose worker, 51, of Epping, who has a previous caution for common assault, smiled and waved at family in the public gallery as he entered the dock.

The judge jailed for one year and ten months. The court heard Smith was an unofficial carer for his 72-year-old mother.

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 added he was ‘satisfied this was racially motivated at least in part’. 

The violence was captured on an eight-minute video which was posted on Facebook, parts of which were shown to the court.

It showed protesters jumping at a police van and shouting, punching and pushing at police with helmets and riot shields. Police hit protesters with their riot shields.

One woman in a summer top and shorts was seen pointing at a police officer and haranguing him as he retreated. One man in a motorbike helmet has his fist raised at an officer standing behind a riot shield.

Protesters are heard clapping and jeering in the video footage.

The prosecutor said: ‘What we see is repeated assaults against officers, repeated damage to vehicles.’

Chief Inspector Terry Fisher, the police commander for Epping, told the court in a statement: ‘In my 20 years of policing I have never witnessed disorder of this scale in Essex and certainly not in a town like Epping.’ 

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.

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.

Roger Hirst, the police, fire and crime commissioner for Essex, said the force would only receive government help if costs hit £4m.