Epping asylum hotel protesters guilty of violent disorder

Three men have been convicted of committing violent disorder during protests outside an asylum hotel in Essex. Up to 500 people gathered outside The Bell Hotel in Epping on 17 July after a migrant living there was charged with - and later jailed for - sex offences. Keith Silk, 33, Jonathan Glover, 47, and Charlie Land, 24, formed part of an "aggressive mob" among the crowd, a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court heard. The defendants, from Essex and Hertfordshire, are due to be sentenced on 19 August. Prosecutors said while the protest was initially peaceful, it descended into "serious public disorder" at about 17:30 BST. It followed the arrival of about 50 counter-demonstrators, which led to clashes among the two groups. Silk, of Torrington Drive, Loughton, threw a bottle at a police vehicle and was caught on camera trying to pull a hotel sign from the ground. Footage also showed a hooded man, identified as Land, of Warren Close in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, smashing the windscreen of a police vehicle and ripping off wing mirrors. Glover, of Springfields in Waltham Abbey, was seen confronting officers and getting into an altercation with them. Prosecutor Sam Willis said Glover lost two t