{"id":61762,"date":"2025-08-26T15:37:32","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/man-told-girls-in-epping-he-wanted-to-have-a-baby-court-hears\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T15:37:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T15:37:34","slug":"man-told-girls-in-epping-he-wanted-to-have-a-baby-court-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/man-told-girls-in-epping-he-wanted-to-have-a-baby-court-hears\/","title":{"rendered":"Man told girls in Epping he wanted to ‘have a baby’, court hears"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Lewis Adams<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News, Essex<\/span><\/p>\n

Reporting from<\/svg>Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"JuliaJulia Quenzler\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Hadush Kebatu is on trial at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A man told two 14-year-old girls eating pizza in a town centre that he “wanted to have a baby with them” and tried to kiss them, a court heard.<\/p>\n

Hadush Kebatu, from Ethiopia, allegedly propositioned the teenagers “without any encouragement” after accepting an offer of food from them in Epping, Essex, on 7 July.<\/p>\n

Allegations of the incident led to a wave of anti-immigration protests and counter-demonstrations outside The Bell Hotel, where Mr Kebatu was staying as an asylum seeker.<\/p>\n

He denies sexual assault, inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, and harassment without violence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In court, Mr Kebatu gave his date of birth as December 1986, making him 38, but court records have suggested he is 41.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Stuart Cowen said Mr Kebatu recently arrived in the UK and the case had “attracted quite a lot of publicity because of the defendant’s personal circumstances”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Protests took place outside The Bell Hotel in Epping after the allegations against Hadush Kebatu – who was living there – emerged<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Opening the trial, Mr Cowen said the defendant approached the girls, who were sitting on a bench eating pizza, and made “inappropriate comments”.<\/p>\n

“It is the Crown’s case he said he wanted to have a baby with each of them and attempted to kiss them,” Mr Cowen said. <\/p>\n

“He invited them back to The Bell Hotel where he was a resident, having recently arrived in the UK.”<\/p>\n

Having been rejected and told the girls were 14, Mr Kebatu responded “age did not matter”, Mr Cowen said.<\/p>\n

He said the girls left the area but were approached by the asylum seeker the following day.<\/p>\n

On this occasion, it was alleged one of the teenagers was wearing her school uniform.<\/p>\n

Mr Cowen said she became uncomfortable and when a male friend intervened, Mr Kebatu asked them to kiss before later placing his hand on her thigh.<\/p>\n

“She will tell the court that while the defendant was behaving in this way, he appeared to have an erection,” the prosecutor added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In an interview with police, played to the court, one of the girls said Mr Kebatu “kept leaning in, pouting his lips” at her, adding “he was really eager for a kiss”.<\/p>\n

“[He said] if I come back to the hotel with him we can make babies,” she alleged.<\/p>\n

Asked how it made her feel, the girl told an officer: “I couldn’t really move, it just shocked me. I didn’t know what to do. My mind went blank.<\/p>\n

“I felt sick to my stomach. I didn’t think a fully grown man would think it was OK to do that.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Epping Forest District Council secured a High Court victory temporarily blocking The Bell Hotel from housing asylum seekers on 19 August<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Judge Christopher Williams was also told a woman asked if Mr Kebatu needed help, but, shortly afterwards, he “sexually assaulted her by putting his hand on her leg” and trying to kiss her.<\/p>\n

Police officers were called and arrested Mr Kebatu nearby, the court was told.<\/p>\n

Molly Dyas, defending, said the asylum seeker denied all allegations made against him, but accepted being in the town centre at the time.<\/p>\n

On 19 August, Epping Forest District Council secured a High Court victory<\/a> temporarily blocking the venue from housing asylum seekers.<\/p>\n

The trial, expected to conclude on Wednesday, continues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Lewis Adams BBC News, Essex Reporting fromChelmsford Magistrates’ Court Julia Quenzler\/BBC Hadush Kebatu is on trial at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court A man told two 14-year-old girls eating pizza in a town centre that he “wanted to have a baby with them” and tried to kiss them, a court heard. Hadush Kebatu, from Ethiopia, allegedly propositioned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46],"tags":[1753,595,17961,3121,7031,417,99,1746],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61764,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61762\/revisions\/61764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}