An Ethiopian asylum seeker, whose arrest in July sparked angry protests outside the hotel near London where he and other migrants were being housed, has been jailed for 12 months for sexually assaulting a woman and a teenage girl.

The protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, 30km north of the British capital, became a touchpaper for a string of country-wide demonstrations amid rising tensions over immigration.

Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was convicted at Chelmsford Magistrates Court earlier in September of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman, attempting to sexually assault the girl, inciting her to engage in sexual activity and one count of harassment.

Kebatu had acknowledged that he was aware of the unrest his offending had caused and that other law-abiding asylum seeke

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