Epping hotel asylum seeker jailed for attacks on staff in Essex

A migrant who travelled to the UK by small boat and later attacked asylum hotel staff has been jailed for 16 weeks.

Mohammed Sharwarq, 32, assaulted a cleaner, a head chef and two residents at The Bell Hotel, in Epping, Essex, on 12 August.

The 32-year-old’s barrister said he was suffering a mental breakdown at the time and now wanted to return to Syria.

Sharwarq was sentenced at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court after admitting a series of assaults.

A sexual assault charge was dropped by the prosecution at the start of the hearing.

Terence Newman, prosecuting, said Sharwarq knocked a fellow migrant to the floor in a one-punch attack at the hotel’s canteen, which left him bleeding.

He then struck a cleaner in the arm, threw a banana at him and slapped another resident in the hotel lobby.

“The defendant then approaches the head chef; he grabs him and tries to punch him to the face,” said Mr Newman, adding police were called when Sharwarq then armed himself with a chair.

The attacks followed several other incidents where Sharwarq slapped, kicked and charged at another resident between 25 and 26 July, the court heard.

District Judge Lynette Woodrow said he was on bail for an alleged affray at another asylum hotel in Gloucestershire at the time.

Paul Baker, mitigating, suggested Sharwarq was experiencing a “breakdown” brought on by the trauma of fleeing war in Syria in 2011.

“There were a lot of deaths and atrocities committed in this time,” Mr Baker said.

The defendant spent time in Turkey before being granted residency in Germany, but an incident, not detailed to the court, led to his settled status being revoked.

Mr Baker said Sharwarq was an engineer and “came into the UK by boat” in the hope of getting work, later being housed at The Bell Hotel.

The hotel made national headlines when an asylum seeker living there, Hadush Kebatu, was charged with and later jailed for sexual offences in an unrelated case in July.

Mr Baker said Sharwarq “indicated a desire to return to Syria” after his arrest.

“Despite the atrocities going on there, despite the people going missing, he wants to return back to Syria. He’s had enough,” Mr Baker added.

Sharwarq was sentenced after admitting four offences of assault by beating and two counts of common assault.

Judge Woodrow ordered he pay £700 in compensation, shared between three of his victims.