Latest news with #DanTesfalul
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Migrant hotel protests spread nationwide
Migrant hotel protests spread across Britain on Saturday as public anger grew over illegal immigration. In Norwich, hundreds of Union Flag-waving locals gathered outside the Brook Hotel to demand its closure. There were also protests in Leeds, Southampton and Nottinghamshire, with more planned for Sunday. The Nottinghamshire protest was mostly peaceful although there was a brief confrontation involving pro-migrant counter-demonstrators. Masked counter-protesters broke away from the main group – some of whom carried Stand Up to Racism placards – and walked into the middle of the crowd before being escorted away by police. Female protesters in Norwich told The Telegraph that the migrant hotel made them fear for their safety because two former residents had been jailed for sex offences in the past three months. Dan Tesfalul, an Eritrean, was sentenced to eight years for raping a woman in Norwich in April. In June, Rashid Al-Waeli, from Yemen, was sentenced to 20 months for child sex offences after he sent sexual messages to a paedophile hunter he believed was a 14-year-old boy. Sophie, a 20-year-old who declined to give her surname, said: ' It is absolutely petrifying. Go back to the early 2000s when women would walk home from the pub at night alone. 'I would not even think about doing that now. You just don't know who is hiding in a bush and it is getting more and more common. It's scary.' Louis Bunn, 26, waved a Union Flag as he said he was 'so scared' for the future of his six-year-old daughter because of the hotel. 'I am not fascist,' he said. 'I am not far-Right. I used to vote for the Labour Party. 'But please, all of us need to come together. All of us British – white, brown, black, whatever colour you are, whatever faith you are, whatever race you are – you need to come down here and protect our f---ing children, because this is getting mental.' At the protest crowds chanted 'Keir Starmer is a w----r' as cars beeped their horns as they drove by. The demonstration was led by armed forces veterans who had camped overnight outside the Brook Hotel. Ian Curry, who served in Northern Ireland and Kuwait in the Royal Marines from 1987 to 1999, said the public needed to 'wake up' and demand the closure of the hotels. ' Women and children are not safe in this country,' the 58-year-old said. 'This is what the demonstration was for. Where's all the money for these hotels coming from? It's coming from us.' Callum Creak, 23, added: 'You just hear horror story after horror story. It's despicable stuff and surely it's right to support shutting the hotels down. It should be a bipartisan issue.' Protests also took place in Leeds, West Yorkshire, on Saturday as demonstrators shouted 'back in your rubber dinghies' to asylum seekers in the Britannia Hotel. Demonstrations were also held outside the hotel on Friday night. In addition to the protests in Bournemouth, Southampton and Sutton-in-Ashfield, demonstrations are also planned on Sunday in Epping in Essex, Wolverhampton and Altrincham in Cheshire. Police have made 18 arrests and charged seven people in connection with successive demonstrations at Epping, Disorder first erupted there earlier in July after an asylum seeker was charged with allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl.. Epping Forest district council passed a motion on Thursday to call on the Government 'to immediately and permanently close' the hotel 'for the purposes of asylum processing'. Protests also took place this week outside the four-star Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf, to which the Home Office plans to send asylum seekers. Some 32,000 asylum seekers are being housed in around 210 hotels across Britain, according to the latest Home Office data from March 2025. A record 24,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far in 2025, up 50 per cent. A spokesman for Norfolk Constabulary said it had arrested two people on Saturday on suspicion of affray following protests at the Brook Hotel earlier in the week.
Daily Mail
30-04-2025
- Daily Mail
Asylum seeker who came to Britain on small boat is jailed for raping woman after she left nightclub
A 'predatory' asylum seeker who arrived in the UK on a small boat has been jailed for more than eight years after raping a woman who was so drunk she couldn't remember the attack. Eritrean Dan Tesfalul, 27, attacked his victim in a busy city centre after she left a nightclub and only fled when he was challenged by a security guard. The defendant, who arrived in the UK in 2022, bought drinks for the woman and followed her outside when she went to get food. He then forced himself on her on a patch of grass near a car park in Norwich city centre. Details of the case emerged in the week Home Secretary Yvette Cooper revealed plans to make it easier to deport asylum seekers convicted of sex offences. The announcement came as it emerged the number of Channel migrant crossings this year had passed 10,000 – more than a month earlier than in 2024 and six weeks earlier than 2023. Jailing Tesfalul for eight years and three months with another five years on licence, Judge Alice Robinson told him he was an 'extremely dangerous' offender who had shown a 'predatory sexual manner' towards the victim he 'specifically targeted' as she was unable to defend herself due to drink. She added: 'This was a horrific attack on a lone, intoxicated female in the middle of the night, resulting in a number of bruises – and deep distress.' The woman Tesfalul attacked bravely read out her victim impact statement at Norwich Crown Court, saying: 'It was such a horrible attack when I was at my most vulnerable.' Revealing she was now 'scared of being out alone in case it might happen again', she continued: 'I feel scared of men and feel they are out to get me and rape me too. 'It's horrible to feel scared of every man you see when in the city and in the shops.' Tesfalul was staying in the Best Western Brook Hotel – one of two Norwich hotels used by the Home Office to provide temporary accommodation for asylum seekers – at the time of the attack on May 2, 2024. He had been out drinking when he saw the woman in Qube nightclub on the city's busy Prince of Wales Road. After plying her with drinks, she went outside to get some food and he followed her before raping her near the car park. Prosecutor Stephen Spence said although the woman was too drunk to remember what happened, a woman leaving the car park heard her 'screaming out' and called police. Other passers-by saw what was happening and Tesfalul pulled up his trousers and ran off when a car park security guard approached him. The defendant was arrested a short distance away minutes later. Tesfalul was initially charged with raping the women three times on the same occasion but two of the offences were allowed to lie on file after he admitted one count. The court was told that he had been studying for a psychology degree in his home country before leaving in 2018 and eventually arriving in the UK on a small boat three years ago. He was granted leave to remain in November 2023 and was studying software development when he committed the rape. Matthew Sorel-Cameron, defending, said his client knew his victim 'will have to live with the consequences of his actions' and was 'deeply sorry and profoundly ashamed' for the suffering he had caused. Tesfalul's father had died while 'crossing the Mediterranean in a boat when the defendant was four or five', he added. The defendant was placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely and given a restraining order banning him from contacting his victim directly or indirectly for 15 years. Detective Constable Dave Block, of Norfolk Police, said after the sentencing: 'I would like to commend the members of the public who intervened in this incident, the police officers who attended swiftly and professionally, and, most of all, the victim who has engaged with us throughout the investigation.' Any offender given a jail term of a year or more – as well as war criminals or terrorists – can be refused asylum and deported from the UK under the Refugee Convention at present. Ms Cooper said on Monday that the government would widen this to include anyone convicted of a crime that led to them being placed on the sex offenders register in the UK, regardless of the length of their sentence. She said this would 'ensure these appalling crimes are taken seriously' but the Conservatives dismissed the move as 'too little, too late'. The Home Office was approached for a comment.
