A carpenter has been handed a suspended prison sentence after he admitted assaulting a police officer at a protest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers.
Jimmy Hillard, of Loughton, Essex, went to the demonstration at the Bell Hotel in Epping on Friday, a hearing at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court was told on Monday.
The bald-headed 52-year-old, who wore a grey tracksuit in the secure dock of the court, pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker.
He was sentenced to eight weeks in prison suspended for 12 months.
Serena Berry, prosecuting, said that Hillard was outside the Bell Hotel at 9.20pm while a police cordon was in place, and an officer asked him to move.
"This defendant didn't move," the prosecutor said, adding that an officer then "pushed him away from the officers' cordon causing him to fall to the ground".
"While on the ground he's kicked out at (the officer)," Ms Berry said.
She said that "no injury was sustained".
Raphael Pigott, mitigating for Hillard, said: "He said he didn't go there to hurt anyone or fight with police, it was just a reaction.
"He's pushed, goes flying on the ground so he's probably angry and upset by that.
"He expresses his regret in interview that he did that."
Judge Christopher Williams said: "There's ongoing disorder surrounding the Government's policy on housing asylum seekers at hotels across the country.
"The Bell Hotel is at the epicentre of that."
He continued: "We've all seen what happens when peaceful protests are no longer peaceful.
"What happens is... members of the public are suddenly at risk.
"It becomes a very difficult and hostile situation for police to deal with."
He said that Hillard attended the Bell Hotel "to take part in a protest while you were on bail for alleged offences that took place earlier" at the location.
He said that Hillard had previously been sentenced in 2021 for a racially aggravated offence that took place outside the Bell Hotel.
"Given the ongoing disorder at the hotel and across the country I've got to be considering punishment and deterrence," the judge said.
He sentenced Hillard to eight weeks in prison suspended for 12 months.
He also ordered that he complete 60 hours of unpaid work, and excluded him from the vicinity of the Bell Hotel for six months.
The judge ordered that Hillard pay £100 compensation to the police officer, £85 costs and £154 victim surcharge.
Multiple demonstrations have been held outside the Bell Hotel in Epping since July 13 after an asylum seeker was charged with the alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.
His trial began last week and is due to conclude later this week.
Earlier on Monday, in a separate hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court, 23-year-old Charlie Land pleaded not guilty to two offences said to have happened outside the hotel on July 17.
Land, of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, denied violent disorder and criminal damage, with an allegation that he damaged a police carrier belonging to the Metropolitan Police.
Judge Jamie Sawyer said there was an allegation that Land kicked the wing mirror of a police carrier, jumped on the bonnet and kicked the windscreen causing it to crack, and threw a traffic cone.
Land was bailed until a further case management hearing at the same court on September 22.
