Asylum seeker who was in Epping hotel denies touching girls

An Ethiopian man who became the focus of far-right demonstrations outside a hotel in Epping after being accused of sexually assaulting two teenagers has denied touching them.

- Matthew Weaver

"I'm not a wild animal. I can't do these kind of things," Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an asylum seeker housed at the Bell hotel in Epping, told his trial at Colchester magistrates court yesterday.

Speaking through an interpreter he added: "This is anti-Christian - these are just children, innocent children."

Kebatu, who told the court he was a 38-year-old sports teacher in Ethiopia, denies three counts of sexual assault against two 14-year-old girls and a woman in Epping town centre on 7 and 8 July this year. He also denies one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, and one count of harassment without violence.

He told the court he only said "hello" to the schoolgirl and her friends in Epping town centre, and nothing more, because he was "worried about my asylum case".