Asylum protests: Teen charged over Knowsley disorder

The protests happened outside the hotel in Knowsley on Friday

A teenager has been charged with beating an emergency worker after disorder broke out near a hotel in Merseyside housing asylum seekers.

Jared Skeete, 19, of Irwell Close, Aigburth, Liverpool, has also been charged with violent disorder.

Merseyside Police said he was arrested after disorder in Knowsley on Friday.

A police officer and two members of the public were hurt as missiles including lit fireworks were thrown when protests turned violent.

Mr Skeete has been remanded in custody and will appear at Wirral Adult Remand Court on Monday.

Fourteen other people - 12 men and two women who are mainly from the Knowsley area - were arrested.

They have been conditionally bailed pending the outcome of police inquiries.

A police van was set alight in the disorder

Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell has condemned the violence and said the government was seeking to limit the "excessive use" of asylum hotels.

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show earlier, he said: "We have a duty to welcome these people.

"Often they are caught in desperate jeopardy, but equally we have a duty to house them appropriately and to work with local people.

"The Home Office is trying very hard now to stop the excessive use of hotels and find different ways of placing them in appropriate places in the community and that is something the Home Office will achieve."

However, Lisa Nandy, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities, said the government was providing "no support whatsoever".

"The government contracts big companies to provide what they call asylum support," she said.

"Instead these companies maximise the profit they make, they put people into some appalling accommodation without help or support - people who've been through hell and back before they even reached this country."

Andrew Mitchell said the government planned to accomodate asylum seekers "in appropriate places in the community"

Sir George Howarth MP, Labour MP for Knowsley, said the protest was triggered by "an alleged incident posted on social media".

Police confirmed they had been investigating reports that "a man made inappropriate advances toward a teenage girl" in Kirkby on Monday.

No victim had been initially identified and a man in his 20s was arrested on Thursday in another part of the country on suspicion of a public order offence, Merseyside Police said.

He was released with no further action following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The investigation was "ongoing" and Chief Constable Serena Kennedy appealed for anyone with information to contact the police.

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