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Migrant hotel protester has year-long wait for trial

News imageShivani Chaudhari/BBC A woman with collar-length, brown hair wearing a pink and white jacket outside the glass front of Chelmsford Magistrates' Court. There is the roof of a car in the foreground.Shivani Chaudhari/BBC
Joanne Winter was part of a counter-demonstration outside The Bell Hotel, where asylum seekers were living on 27 July 2025

A woman has to wait more than a year for her trial on charges of assaulting a man and damaging his GoPro microphone during protests outside The Bell asylum seekers hotel in Essex in 2025.

Joanne Winter, 29, was part of a counter-demonstration outside the hotel in Epping on 27 July last year that was responding to anti-migrant protests.

At Chelmsford Magistrates' Court, she spoke to confirm her name, age, date of birth and her not guilty plea to charges of assault and criminal damage, which she first entered in October last year.

Winter, of Tylney Road in Sheffield and formerly of Deptford in south-east London, is to remain on unconditional bail ahead of a trial at the same court on 3 December 2027.

News imagePA Media Police officers wearing caps and hi-vis jackets standing in front of a large blue sign that says "The Bell Hotel".PA Media
The Bell Hotel was the focal point of intense protests and counter-protests over the summer of 2025

Magistrates have previously heard the microphone was worth about £150.

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