Arrest made as dozens gather outside Essex hotel ‘housing asylum seekers'
More than 100 demonstrators assembled outside the Bell Hotel in Epping on Sunday evening, with some chanting 'save our kids'.
Some set off flares in blue and red, while others held signs which read 'deport foreign criminals', 'we go home when they go back' and 'defend our girls'.
Bottles and smoke flares were later thrown towards police vans blocking the entrance to the hotel on the High Road.
The force said one person had been arrested and was being taken into custody on Sunday evening.
Essex Police announced, before the protest, that it would order demonstrators to remove face coverings when requested under section 60AA of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
Anyone who refuses to remove a face mask when asked to do so is likely to be arrested and could be imprisoned if convicted, the force said.
'The right to peaceful protest is protected by law and allows everyone freedom of expression, but this must be done respectfully and if there is a risk to public order, we will act appropriately,' officers said.
It comes after a man was charged with violent disorder and criminal damage on Sunday afternoon following previous clashes outside the hotel.
Eight police officers were injured after what started as a peaceful protest on Thursday evening.
Keith Silk, 33, of Torrington Drive, Loughton, was arrested on Saturday, Essex Police said.
The force said on Sunday that the CPS had authorised police to charge Silk with one count of violent disorder and one count of criminal damage.
He was remanded into custody and will appear at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Monday.
Thursday's demonstration was one of a series of protests outside the hotel since 38-year-old asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was charged with sexual assault after an incident where he is alleged to have attempted to kiss a 14-year-old girl.
He denied the charge when he appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Thursday.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
White House restricts WSJ access to Trump over Epstein story
The White House on Monday barred The Wall Street Journal from traveling with US President Donald Trump during his upcoming visit to Scotland, after the newspaper reported that he wrote a bawdy birthday message to his former friend, alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The move comes after Trump on Friday sued the WSJ and its media magnate owner Rupert Murdoch for at least $10 billion over the allegation in the article, which Trump denies. The Trump administration's handling of the Epstein case has threatened to split the Republican's far-right Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, with some of his supporters calling for a full release of the so-called "Epstein Files." The punishment of the Wall Street Journal marks at least the second time the Trump administration has moved to exclude a major news outlet from the press pool over its reporting, having barred Associated Press journalists from multiple key events since February. "As the appeals court confirmed, The Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces," said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. "Due to The Wall Street Journal's fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board (Air Force One)." Trump departs this weekend for Scotland, where he owns two golf resorts and will meet with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice, under Trump-appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi, said there was no evidence suggesting disgraced financier Epstein had kept a "client list" or was blackmailing powerful figures before his death in 2019. In its story on Thursday, the WSJ reported that Trump had written a suggestive birthday letter to Epstein in 2003, illustrated with a naked woman and alluding to a shared "secret." Epstein, a longtime friend of Trump and multiple other high-profile men, was found hanging dead in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited dozens of underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida. The case sparked conspiracy theories, especially among Trump's far-right voters, about an alleged international cabal of wealthy pedophiles. Epstein's death -- declared a suicide -- before he could face trial supercharged that narrative. Since returning to power in January, Trump has moved to increase control over the press covering the White House. In February, the Oval Office stripped the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) of its nearly century-old authority to oversee which outlets have access to certain restricted presidential events, with Trump saying that he was now "calling the shots" on media access. In a statement, the WHCA president urged the White House to "restore" the Journal to the pool. "This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment," said WHCA President Weijia Jiang. "Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media." aha/ksb
Associated Press
24 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Man accused of setting fire to 11 NYPD vehicles is arrested and charged with arson
NEW YORK (AP) — A man with a history of arrests at pro-Palestinian protests was charged Monday with setting fire to 11 New York City police vehicles last month. Jakhi McCray, 21, of Brooklyn pleaded not guilty to arson in U.S. District Court. A criminal complaint unsealed Monday said McCray was recorded on surveillance video scaling a fence to a private lot for reserve New York Police Department vehicles in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood shortly before 1 a.m. on June 12. A police officer arrived about a half hour later to find the vehicles on fire and the suspect fleeing through a hole in the fence, it said. The complaint said a lighter and a pair of sunglasses containing McCray's fingerprints were found at the scene, along with fire starters that had been placed under some undamaged vehicles. Police estimated the replacement cost of the vehicles at $800,000. McCray's attorney, Ron Kuby, said his client, whom he described as an activist, was ordered released on the arson charge but remained in police custody on a separate misdemeanor count in Manhattan. After vehicles were torced, Mayor Eric Adams suggested the suspect was connected to protests in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere over the Trump administration's immigration enforcement agenda. 'Setting police vehicles ablaze is not a form of protest — it is a federal crime,' Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a news release Monday.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Man found guilty of murdering two men whose remains were found in suitcases
A man has been found guilty of murdering two men and dumping their remains in suitcases near Clifton Suspension Bridge. Yostin Andres Mosquera, 35, killed civil partners Albert Alfonso, 62, and Paul Longworth, 71, on July 8 last year in their flat in Scotts Road, Shepherd's Bush, west London. Mosquera, who was also staying with the couple, 'decapitated and dismembered' them, froze parts of their remains and brought the rest in suitcases to Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, according to the prosecution. He repeatedly stabbed Mr Alfonso, who suffered injuries to his torso, face and neck, while Mr Longworth was attacked with a hammer to the back of his head and his skull shattered, jurors at Woolwich Crown Court heard. Mr Alfonso enjoyed 'extreme sex' and Mosquera, a Colombian national whom he met online years earlier, was part of that world, jurors heard. Mr Alfonso was stabbed to death during a filmed session, with footage shown in court recording Mosquera declaring 'do you like it?' and also singing and dancing in the aftermath of the attack. Mosquera's plan was to hurl the suitcases over the bridge to dispose of the remains after the 'calculated' and 'premeditated' killings, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said. Mosquera admitted killing Mr Alfonso but claimed it was manslaughter by reason of loss of control. He pleaded not guilty to murdering both men and insisted Mr Alfonso killed Mr Longworth. It took a jury five hours and three minutes to unanimously find Mosquera guilty. He had told the jury he feared for his own life and believed he was about to be killed when he stabbed Mr Alfonso. Mosquera said he thought Mr Alfonso would do to him what he claimed he had already done to Mr Longworth, he felt 'intimidated' and threats had been made to his family in Colombia. Mosquera's actions after stabbing Mr Alfonso, including singing and dancing, could have been an outburst as he had been overwhelmed by all that had happened to him, his defence counsel suggested. The judge, Mr Justice Bennathan KC, said he would sentence Mosquera on October 24. He said: 'I am not going to pass sentence on you today although the only one I can pass on you is one of life imprisonment. 'I am going to order a psychiatric report on you. It is in your interests to cooperate with the psychiatrist so that I can decide the minimum term you are going to serve.' The judge also turned to the jury and said: 'I want a psychiatric report on this man. I want to know if there is anything in this case going on that we do not know about.' He also thanked them personally, saying: 'We put serious demands on jurors, in this case more than most. 'It went on much longer than the two weeks you were expecting. In this case you have had to look at a very tough video. 'They were terrible brutal events and to read about it is a dreadful thing but to see it is really shocking. If you do want to seek help then speak to the court staff – above all, thank you.' Computer searches for the phrase 'where on the head is a knock fatal?' were made on the day the couple were killed and, under cross-examination, Mosquera could only say there was 'no reason' why he should have done that. Ms Heer KC told him: 'I suggest that you did that in the morning and why you were searching for 'where on the head is a knock fatal?' is because you were planning to kill Mr Longworth.' On July 10, Mosquera was driven to Bristol and he told a cyclist who spotted him on the bridge with a large red suitcase and a silver trunk that they contained car parts. Bridge staff noticed something appeared to be leaking from the red suitcase. Mosquera said it was oil and the staff shone their torches on the suitcases, he walked past and fled. Mosquera, who does not speak English, made repeated computer searches to find a freezer in the build-up to the killings. Many of the searches were in Spanish, some used Google translate and were also made while Mosquera was the only person in the house. He asked questions about delivery options and several searches were looking for a deep freezer, a chest freezer, a large indoor and outdoor freezer for sale. In the days before the killings, the phrase 'hammer killer' was tapped into the computer, the jury heard. The murder video was recorded during a sex session between Mosquera and Mr Alfonso. It captures them grappling before Mr Alfonso is stabbed. Seconds later Mosquera goes on to the computer to try and plunder from his victims' bank accounts. Jurors heard he had also attempted to open a bank account using the Scotts Road address. Immediately after the murders, he accessed a spreadsheet which contained their online banking passwords and he tried to log in to their online bank accounts. He unsuccessfully tried to send £4,000 to his account in Colombia. Witness statements, CCTV footage, digital and forensic evidence had to be pieced together to ensure the jury could see it 'was simply impossible for Yostin Mosquera's version of events to be true', Senior Crown Prosecutor Miranda Jollie said after the verdicts. She said: 'CCTV and employment records proved that Mr Alfonso was at work when Mr Longworth was brutally murdered, and Mosquera's search history on his laptop showed that he was looking to purchase a chest freezer even before committing his first savage killing. 'With a comprehensive timeline mapped out, the weight of evidence stacked up against him and meant that the jury could be sure he was responsible for murdering both victims.' Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Ollie Stride, who led the 'complex and intense' investigation, described it as 'one of the most harrowing murders my team have ever investigated, a case that will stay with many of us for a long time'. He said: 'Paul and Albert were murdered in the most brutal and callous of ways in their own home. 'The team have consumed hundreds of hours of footage, including some of the utmost disturbing and graphic nature. Those images will stay with all of us for a very long time.' Detectives worked with Avon and Somerset Police, who arrested Mosquera, and 'many witnesses who provided detailed accounts of events which must have been extremely hard to share'. They also worked closely with the LGBT+ Independent Advisory Group, who provided support, advice and helped monitor the investigation.
