'We don't want Epping asylum seeker convict back'

Mohamed, 45, said Kebatu's offending shocked the people of Epping

Asylum seekers living in an Essex hotel have been angered by sexual offences committed by a man housed there, a fellow migrant said.

Hadush Kebatu, from Ethiopia, targeted a 14-year-old girl during two encounters in Epping on 7 and 8 July.

Protests have been staged outside The Bell Hotel, where he was being housed, since Kebatu's arrest and subsequent conviction on Thursday of five offences.

Mohamed, who has been lodging at the hotel for five months, told the BBC: "He's gone and we hope he doesn't come back again."

The 45-year-old said Kebatu was among a group of men at the hotel who would regularly drink alcohol and be noisy.

"People, they don't like him," he added. "Nobody wanted him and we don't want him to come back.

"The Epping population now don't like the asylum seekers because it's a shock what he did to a small girl."

Hadush Kebatu was convicted of five offences at court on Thursday

During Kebatu's three-day trial, prosecutors said he told a 14-year-old girl and her friend "come back to Africa, you would be a good wife" on 7 July.

The following day, he attempted to kiss the girl, placed his hand on her thigh and became "visibly aroused" when asking her to kiss her friend.

That encounter was broken up by a woman who intervened, but Kebatu then sexually assaulted her by touching her leg.

Protests have taken place outside The Bell Hotel in Epping after the allegations against Hadush Kebatu emerged

At the trial, Kebatu gave his date of birth as December 1986, making him 38, although the court recorded his age as 41.

A judge at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court found him guilty of two sexual assaults, harassing the girl, inciting her to engage in sexual activity and an attempted sexual assault, and warned him to expect a prison sentence.

Reacting to the verdicts, Mohamed told the BBC: "What he did is wrong, it's an older man and she is a small girl."

Sue Russo, from the community group Epping For Everyone, added: "We welcome the verdict that this man has been convicted.

"We feel fundamentally front and centre for the young woman in this, that's really important to say."

Kebatu will be sentenced on 23 September.

Mohamed, who is from Somalia, says he is awaiting a decision himself on whether he can stay in the UK.

He told the BBC last month that he did not want to see hotels used as migrant accommodation and that the government should help "get [asylum seekers] to work".