Channay Augustus, 22, has pleaded guilty to affray and to carrying a bladed article after an incident outside the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf in which prosecutors say she returned to the site armed with a meat cleaver.
The offence followed an encounter on August 13 in which Ms. Augustus discovered a man inside her blind mother's flat, a short walk from the hotel. She chased the man away and later went to the Britannia Hotel at about 6 p.m., where she was part of a group of roughly 20 people who attempted to force their way into the building, prosecutors said.
Prosecutor Hitesh Saini told the court that Ms. Augustus left the area and returned a short time later carrying a meat cleaver. Statements from hotel security said the pair of guards were trying to calm Ms. Augustus when she pulled the cleaver from her jacket, started banging it and threatened to stab one of them. Mr. Saini said Ms. Augustus was recorded on CCTV and used a racist slur directed at asylum seekers during the incident.
Ms. Augustus admitted one count of affray and one count of having a bladed article in a public place at a hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court. She pleaded not guilty to separate charges of threatening two security guards with a bladed article and of assaulting an emergency worker.
The man found in the flat, described by police as in his early 20s, was arrested on suspicion of assault and has since been bailed, the Metropolitan Police said. Ms. Augustus was arrested at her home address following the hotel incident.
Judge Sandy Canavan set a trial date for June 29 next year and told Ms. Augustus she must attend. "If you don't turn up to your trial it can go ahead without you, and there will be no one to put your story and the jury can hold it against you," the judge said. A hearing on an application for bail was scheduled to be heard later the same day.
Family members of Ms. Augustus sat in the public gallery during the court hearing. The Britannia Hotel is among a number of hotels being used to house asylum seekers and, according to court submissions, has been the focus of protests in recent weeks.
The case will return to court for the bail application and for pre-trial preparations ahead of the June trial. Police and court documents provided the core account of events; additional details, including statements from the defendant and any defence, will emerge through the ongoing legal process.