Two British men who took part in protests outside an Essex asylum hotel have received longer prison sentences than the migrant whose sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl triggered the demonstrations.
The protests erupted after Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu, who had arrived in the UK by small boat only days earlier and was housed at the hotel, sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman in the town, Epping, Essex, northeast of London.
Kebatu attempted to kiss the schoolgirl, placed his hand on her thigh, and later assaulted an adult woman who intervened. He was found guilty of multiple sexual offences and jailed for 12 months on September 23, 2025, before eventually being deported to Ethiopia. That was the maximum term a magistrates’ court can impose for a single either-way offence.
The case caused a huge uproar in the local community, amid growing public anger over a string of sexual offences and other incidents involving asylum seekers housed in such accommodation in the UK.
Charlie Land, 24, from Hatfield, was sentenced to two years and eight months for violent disorder and criminal damage. Jonathan Glover, 48, from Waltham Abbey, received two years and six months for violent disorder. Both were convicted after a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court on June 1, 2026, and sentenced on August 19.
Footage showed Land repeatedly attacking police vehicles, including climbing onto one and kicking the windscreen while masked.
Glover was seen shouting at officers and blocking police carriers during the disorder on July 17, 2025, outside the Bell Hotel in Epping.
A third man convicted at the same trial, Keith Silk, 34, from Loughton, is due to be sentenced on November 10.
The sentences handed to Land and Glover greatly exceed Kebatu’s term.
They are among 10 people jailed over the Epping disorder, with combined custodial sentences already exceeding 17 years. Essex Police has said 11 men were convicted in all.
Earlier defendants also received terms longer than the original offender’s.
The disparity has fuelled renewed accusations of two-tier justice, a concept that refers to the widespread perception that the UK legal system applies different standards depending on the identity or politics of those involved. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage used the term when the first Epping sentences were passed in October 2025.
COMMENT: What killed Nowak: One murderer and all the malignancy of collective self-hate, writes @ConradMBlack https://t.co/LUITRWJe9l
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 5, 2026
