Second migrant at Epping hotel charged with sexual assault
Mohammed Sharwarq faces seven charges linked to offences alleged to have been committed between July 25 and Aug 12.
The Syrian national, 32, is facing two counts of common assault, four counts of assault by beating and a single count of sexual assault on a man. He has been remanded into custody and is due to appear at Chelmsford magistrates' court on Wednesday.
An Essex Police spokesman said on Wednesday: 'A man will appear in court today to face criminal charges after officers were called to the Bell Hotel on Epping High Road on Tuesday Aug 12. A 32-year-old man was arrested and questioned.
'Mohammed Sharwarq, a Syrian national who resides at the Bell Hotel, Epping, has been charged with the following offences: two counts of common assault; four counts of assault by beating; one count of sexual assault on a male contrary to section three of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.'
Mr Sharwarq is the second migrant at the hotel to be charged with a sexual offence after an Ethiopian asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a schoolgirl days after arriving in Britain.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, denied the charge when he appeared at Chelmsford magistrates' court, and has been remanded in custody.
Last month, the Bell Hotel was at the centre of days of protests after Kebatu was charged.
On Tuesday, Epping Forest district council applied to the High Court to stop asylum seekers being housed at the hotel. The authority asked for an interim injunction to prohibit the hotel's use as asylum seeker accommodation for a fortnight.
The leader of the council said it had taken the action because 'the current situation cannot go on', adding that the Home Office 'continues not to listen'.
In a statement Cllr Chris Whitbread said: ' If the Bell Hotel was a nightclub, we could have closed it down long ago. So far as the council is aware, there is no criminal record checking of individuals who might only have been in the country a matter of days before being housed at the hotel.
'There are five schools and a residential care home within the vicinity of the hotel. The use by the Home Office of the premises for asylum seekers poses a clear risk of further escalating community tensions already at a high, and the risk of irreparable harm to the local community. We are frustrated that the Home Office continues not to listen.'
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