From the BBC and The Telegraph
An asylum seeker accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl has claimed a woman who intervened called him handsome and invited him home.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu allegedly told the teenager that she would be a “good wife” and that he wanted her to go back with him to the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, to “have babies then… go to Kenya”.
He has now claimed a woman who intervened, who he said “was drunk” told him: “You are handsome, I want you to come to my house”. Asked by barrister Molly Dyas, defending, how drunk the woman was, Mr Kebatu said she “had two bottles in her hand”.
He said the woman gave him a piece of paper with her telephone number and said “you are very handsome – you need to come to my house, we need to have [a] connection . . . She was angry and she said you’re talking to students so if you fail to come I will call the police,”
On Wednesday, Ms Dyas asked Mr Kebatu if he tried to kiss the 14-year-old girl.
Speaking through a Tigrinya interpreter, he replied . . .“She more or less could be my daughter, she’s very young. I can’t do that – I’m not a wild animal. . . I am a Christian, it’s not in my culture as well.”
He called the allegations “simply fabrication” and says he’s done “nothing wrong”.
Another 14-year-old boy told police that the migrant had described two of his teenage female friends as “pretty” and “asked for a kiss from them both”. “He just said they’re pretty and he also said do you want to come to the Bell Hotel to have babies, then we could go to Kenya with each other” Describing a comment the man allegedly made to a girl in the group, the boy said: “The geezer said ‘come back to Africa, you would be a good wife’.
Ending his questioning, Mr Cowen says: “You are a sexual predator who tried to assault one girl and one woman in exactly the same way. That is the truth, isn’t it?”
Kebatu responds: “I am not such a person. I can’t do these kind of things.”
District Judge Christopher Williams says the trial will continue at 14:00 BST on Thursday, 4 September. The prosecution and defence will deliver their closing speeches on that day before he delivers a verdict,
I can’t see that Hadush Kebatu has been granted bail.
