Overview

• Police videos from two 14-year-old boys were played to the court, with accounts that the man asked the girls to come to the Bell Hotel to “have babies,” said one would be a “good wife,” and followed the group into a Tesco.
• One boy said the defendant told him he paid about €2,500 to cross to the UK on a rubber dinghy, according to footage shown to magistrates.
• A woman testified that the defendant tried to kiss her, put his hand on her thigh, and called her “pretty,” and the court heard she later confronted him as he begged and apologised in an encounter near the Bell Hotel.
• Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu denies two counts of sexual assault, one count of attempted sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, and one count of harassment without violence.
• The allegations relate to July 7–8 in Epping and have prompted protests outside the Bell Hotel, while the site’s owner is listed to challenge a ruling restricting asylum use at the Court of Appeal on Thursday.