Woman accused over migrant hotel incident admits affray

A woman accused of forcing her way into a hotel housing migrants while carrying a meat cleaver after one of its residents allegedly walked into her blind mother’s flat has admitted affray.

Channay Augustus, 22, was part of a group of around 20 people who tried to barge into the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf, east London, on August 13, it was alleged.

Augustus, of Tower Hamlets, east London, appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court by videolink on Friday where she pleaded guilty to affray and having an article which had a blade or was sharply pointed, namely a meat cleaver.

She pleaded not guilty to threatening another person with an article with a blade or point and also to a charge of assaulting an emergency worker.

An earlier court hearing was told the trouble started when she discovered a migrant inside her mother’s flat, a five-minute walk from the hotel.

After chasing the man away, she went to the hotel at around 6pm where she confronted a security guard who was trying her calm her down, the court was told.

She returned a short time later with a meat cleaver and started banging it on a metal barrier outside the hotel, the court heard.

She also shouted “f****** asylum seekers”, the previous court hearing was told.

Augustus was later arrested at her home.

Her trial was set for June 29 next year at Snaresbrook Crown Court.