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WATCH: Epping Reform candidate says locals feel 'vindicated' by migrant's guilty verdict
Sep 4, 2025
A Reform UK candidate for Epping has demanded that Ethiopian illegal migrant Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu be "put on a plane and sent home", following his guilty verdict in court.Speaking to GB News, candidate and avid Epping protester Orla Minihane declared that although residents feel "vindicated" by the verdict, Britain is a "soft touch" in dealing with the migrant crisis.FUL STORY HERE.
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Peters was in the court. He's also joined by the Vice Chairwoman of Epping Forest Reform UK
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Charlie Peters, take it away. Well, good evening, Michelle. Yes, the protesters have gathered in Epping just a couple of hours
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after that guilty verdict was delivered nearby in Chelmsford at the Magistrates Court, where
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we heard the district judge there, Christopher Williams, telling the court and indeed Kabuto
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in the dock that his account was not consistent and that the witnesses and indeed the two victims
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of sexual assault, according to his five charges, they had been brave and come forward and accurately
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given an account of what had happened to them. He's been remanded into custody and will be
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sentenced on the 23rd of September. We've been told here that protest is gathered from about 6pm
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so just in the last hour, and you can see quite a significant crowd already, Michelle. People have
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been coming out here consistently on Thursdays and on weekends for the last two months now
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almost in the third month of these protests. And let's speak to one of the concerned parents
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who been gathering Orla Minahane how are you You a reform candidate as well in this local area And you been organising a lot of these protests getting involved What your reaction now to those five guilty charges Well look we absolutely delighted with the charges of course and we feel vindicated
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But I think it's really important to remember that in the middle of all of this is a little 14-year-old girl
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whose life will never be the same again because not only has she been assaulted
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but she's been through legal proceedings, court proceedings, which no 14-year-old child should have to go through
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What concerns us now is how many more similar men like today's, like today, how many similar men are in this hotel and in hotels up and down the country
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You know, he came here and after eight days, only eight days, he went on to, you know, to sexually assault this young girl
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You know, he is not even like he was here for a long period of time, straight off the boat illegally and straight into this hotel and then up to no good
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That is what really concerns us with all the schools that are around here, especially now they have gone back after the summer
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Right to pay tribute to the brave 14-year-old girl coming forward with her friends as witnesses
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as well, but also there was an adult woman who was also..
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The charges were brought against Kabutu as well Kabutu also being found guilty of assaulting that woman as well Now you referring to of course the wider situation here at the hotel behind you The police Essex police saying
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that no crime justifies disorder. What's your reaction to that statement that they're obviously
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worried about a sort of a reaction to those guilty verdicts? There won't be a reaction because
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you know, because he's been found guilty. Had he not been found guilty, then I would be concerned
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that there would be more unrest and upset, of course. But people are very pleased
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We're pleased that he has been dealt with. Ideally, he should be deported
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Why? We don't want him into a prison where the tax man is going to have all the taxes
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from people like us are going to have to go towards paying for him and paying for his upkeep, etc
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Put him on a plane and send him back. What concerns us is the fact that there is no way
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that a man has come here, committed a sexual assault in eight days
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and didn't have any previous before he came here. Of course he did
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And that's the thing. We don't know about any of these men. We don't know their backgrounds, their history, their criminal records
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And that is what every person that stands outside these hotels up and down the country
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has an issue with and is concerned about. We don know the risk that these men are posing to our children and women And it is absolutely imperative that this government get control over this situation and stop them coming in day after day after day
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Well, we're in the court today. The judge heard from the prosecution that they thought
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that the defendant, Hadouche Kabetu, was of good character because they could not find
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any convictions in the countries that he'd been through before he came to Britain. There's
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no information about his time in Ethiopia. That wasn't raised in court. But the prosecution
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had to seek out that information after he'd been charged, which just goes to say what you said already, isn't it
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that they didn't know anything about him before he arrived in Britain? They don't know anything about these men
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And at the end of the day, he has come from Africa. He has come through Africa into Europe and straight over to the UK
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which is what they all do because they know when they get here, they'll get a hotel, they'll get everything paid for
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as opposed to being put into a tent or a camp and then sent straight back
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That's why they come here. We were a soft touch and an easy touch. At the end of the day, for the judge to say
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He is a man of good character. He was here for eight days. How can anybody have any idea about someone's background in eight days
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And the fact that they've got no detail on him is because he's lost all his documentation, like they all do
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What amazes me is they all manage to have a packet of cigarettes in their phone when they get off the boat, but not their passports
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