A Syrian migrant resident at the Bell Hotel, Epping, appeared before magistrates on Wednesday to face seven charges of assault and sexual assault.
Syrian national Mohammed Sharwarq, who is 32-years-old, appeared before the magistrates’ court in Chelmsford, Essex on Wednesday after being arrested the previous day over alleged assaults that are said to have taken place within the Bell Hotel, Epping, over the course of two weeks.
Sharwarq admitted six charges of assault but denied one count of sexual assault, The Daily Telegraph reported. He will appear before a court for trail on September 30th.
The prosecutor told the court Sharwarq is alleged to have approached a man from behind, slapped him, and then “kissed him to the back of the neck, which was unwanted sexual contact”. While allegedly doing this, Sharwarq was said to have remarked “I love you” to the man.
Sharwarq denied the charge through the assistance of an Arabic interpreter.
Sharwarq was also accused of two counts of assault, and one of assault by beating, against the same complainant. The court heard Sharwarq charged at the man and had to be restrained by a third party in one case. In other attacks that Sharwarq admitted, he kicked that victim in the neck, and punched him in the face, causing him to fall to the ground.
Other assaults by beating Sharwarq admitted to were against other victims. The court heard how one man was punched and had a banana thrown at him. Because there was no sexual element in those charges, the victims Anthony Dias, Mohammed Sabeeludin, and Mohammed Abdo Ali were named.
The court further head that Sharwarq was already on police bail over an earlier case of affray at another migrant hotel in the county of Gloucestershire. He is banned from entering Gloucestershire whatsoever as a condition of his bail. He has also previously received a police caution for criminal damage earlier this month.
Sharwarq is a resident of the Bell Hotel, Epping, the focus of weeks of anti-migrant-crime and anti-mass-migration protests triggered by the alleged sex assault of a young girl in the town by another hotel resident. That case is also pending a court date and hasn’t been proven in law. The presence of the hotel has become so controversial both the local Member of Parliament and Epping Forest District Council have called on the government to shut it down.
The BBC cites Dr Neil Hudson, the Conservative MP for Epping Forest, who said of the latest man charged: “I am deeply concerned by reports that a resident of the Bell Hotel has been charged with multiple assaults, including an offence of a sexual nature. I have contacted the Home Office urgently, requesting further information and calling for reassurances on management and safeguarding.”
He told the broadcaster he’d already written to the governing to say the hotel should be “immediately closed for community safety”.
Epping Forest District Council applied for a interim High Court injunction restraining the accommodation of asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel on Tuesday, they said. In the petition, the council cited “the clear risk of further escalating community tensions and urgency of the need for the present situation to be brought under control” and argued that using the hotel as asylum seeker accommodation is actually a breach of planning regulations, as the building is not being used for its legal purpose.
Councillor Chris Whitbread, Leader of Epping Forest District Council said in a statement: “The current situation cannot go on. If the Bell Hotel was a nightclub we could have closed it down long ago… We are frustrated that the Home Office continues not to listen.
“In our view placing asylum seekers in the Bell Hotel is a clear breach of planning permission. It is not in use as a hotel, and it doesn’t function as a hotel. The establishment of a centre to accommodate asylum seekers in this particular location, in close proximity to 5 schools, a residential care home, and the shops and amenities of the market town of Epping is not appropriate in planning terms.”
As earlier reported, the Essex County Police and Crime Commissioner has also appealed to the government on these grounds. “The Bell is not the right place for a hotel for asylum seekers”, he said last month”, continuing: “It’s in the middle of a home counties market town and these are people who have a very different life experience arriving there. There are schools in the vicinity as well. It is not the right place.”
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