The men are the first to be jailed for violent disorder in relation to the series of protests in July and August, which broke out in Epping after an asylum seeker living in the Bell Hotel was accused of sexual assault.
Three men were jailed in the UK on Monday for violent disorder during anti-immigration protests that flared earlier this year against a hotel housing asylum seekers northeast of London.
The men are the first to be jailed for violent disorder in relation to the series of protests in July and August, which broke out in Epping after an asylum seeker living in the Bell Hotel was accused of sexual assault.
A judge at Chelmsford Crown Court jailed Martin Peagram, Dean Smith, and Stuart Williams after they pleaded guilty to violent disorder offences during a July 17 protest.
Judge Jamie Sawyer said Williams, a painter and decorator, tried to get on the roof of the Bell Hotel during the protest, kicked out at a police officer, and climbed onto the roof of a school.
The 36-year-old was jailed for two years and four months.
Peagram, 33, was jailed for two years and two months for kicking a police vehicle and throwing a can at officers, while Smith, 51, was jailed for one year and 10 months after being seen punching an officer’s shield and shoving police.
“Each of you, what you did went beyond protest, and that became criminal when you acted as you did,” Sawyer said.
The judge added he was “satisfied this was racially motivated at least in part”
Around 500 people attended the protest on July 17, during which police officers suffered minor injuries and their vehicles were hit by bottles, eggs, and fireworks.
“In my 20 years of policing, I have never witnessed this scale of disorder in Essex, and certainly not in a town like Epping,” a senior police officer is reported to have told the court in a statement.
In September, Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu was jailed for a year for sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl in Epping in early July.
The Bell Hotel protests sparked demonstrations outside other hotels housing asylum seekers in towns and cities across England, whipping up tensions in an already-bitter national debate surrounding immigration.
The Epping Forest district council is also set to appeal to the Supreme Court after losing a bid to empty the flashpoint hotel of asylum seekers, which was opposed by the hotel’s owners and the UK interior ministry.
AFP
