Man fined for refusing to remove balaclava at Epping protest

A protester who cited burkas when refusing to remove his face covering outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Epping has been fined £276.

Joshua Meadows, 18, from the Essex town, would not remove a “full face” balaclava when asked to do so by police during a protest at The Bell Hotel on 24 July, Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard.

Prosecutor Celestia John-Baptiste said: “He said he didn’t know why he, as a white British person, could not wear a face covering when people could wear burkas.”

Meadows pleaded guilty to failing to remove an item when asked by a constable, and possession of cannabis.

The prosecutor said the teenager was “seen in a crowd with three other males all dressed in black with face coverings”.

“They were asked to remove the coverings, and all did so except for the defendant,” she said.

He was wearing a “full-face balaclava” and had his “hood up”, she added.

The prosecutor added that Meadows was arrested and “said he had his face covered as he did not want it in the media”.

He also had told officers he “had some weed in his pocket” and was searched.

The defendant, who represented himself in court, said he “never had a full-face balaclava” but “had my hood up as it was raining”.

He said he “couldn’t really hear” the police officers and “the next thing they put me in cuffs”.

Magistrate Shaun Rayner, sentencing Meadows, also ordered he pay costs of £85 and a £110 victim surcharge. The cannabis was confiscated and destroyed.

Multiple demonstrations have been held outside The Bell Hotel since the start of summer after asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu sexually assaulted a woman and 14-year-old girl in the town.

The 38-year-old Ethiopian national was jailed for 12 months on Tuesday.