Two jailed for violent disorder at asylum hotel

Two men have been jailed for more than two years after taking part in protests outside an asylum hotel in Essex last summer.

An "aggressive mob" of hundreds of people gathered outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, in July 2025, after one of the migrants living there was charged with sexual assault, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

Jonathan Glover, 47, from Springfields, Waltham Abbey, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for violent disorder.

Charlie Land, 24, from Warren Close in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, sobbed as he received a two year and eight month sentence for violent disorder and criminal damage.

The pair were found guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court following a trial in June.

The court heard Glover had "reluctantly" attended the protest outside the Bell Hotel on 17 July 2025 with his partner, but in sentencing, Judge Mills said "far from an unwilling participant, you [Glover] were wholeheartedly engaged in what was going on".

Footage played during the trial showed Glover confronting officers, filming them on his phone.

Officers were seen trying to remove Glover from the path of their vehicles. In one altercation, Glover is pushed back by an officer with their riot shield, an incident that resulted in Glover losing two teeth.

Mills said Glover had repeatedly said he was there "to film, to document, to report" saying he was a journalist, but "you were nothing of the sort".

"Genuine journalists record events - they do not manufacture them," he said.

"You were not a reporter being picked on by the police, you were not the victim of so-called two-tier justice - you were the antagonist."

"Far from seeking to calm tensions, you repeatedly inflamed them," he added.

Land was found to have attacked nine police vehicles, punching windows, kicking off wing mirrors and letting air out of their tyres.

During the trial, footage showed Land - wearing a face covering - climbing on top of one of the vehicles and kicking the windscreen.

"You were a full and enthusiastic participant in the violent disorder," Mills told him, adding that he had "no regard" for the safety of police officers and that wearing a mask "contributed to an atmosphere of intimidation".

Land was said to have seven previous convictions for nine offences, but the judge said he accepted that Land was "immature" in causing "mindless violence".

He called out to his parents, saying he loved them, as he and Glover were led from the dock.

The pair are the ninth and tenth people to be sentenced for their role in the clashes that day, and the eighth and ninth to be jailed.

Phillip Curson, from Upminster, east London, received a 27-month sentence earlier in August after shoving a police officer during the disorder.

Three other protesters were jailed in October, while Lee Gower and Shaun Thompson, both from Epping, were sentenced earlier in June.

Aaron Elles, from Harlow, also received a prison sentence of one year and eight months in October.

Luke Fleming, of Thaxted Road in Buckhurst Hill, was given a suspended prison term of one-year and nine months in June.

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