Rape charge against asylum seeker in migrant hotel ‘covered-up’ to avoid inflaming ‘community tension’

He appeared at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court earlier this month and has since been remanded in custody.

Local councillors were warned not to speak about the suspect’s housing, The Sun has reported.

A spokesman said: “We knew the Home Office accommodation link would become public knowledge through the court proceedings and, based on events elsewhere in the country, were conscious there may be community tensions related to it.”

However, the revelations were met with fury from both Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Jenrick told The Sun that the “perception of a migrant cover-up” was growing.

He added: “The illegal small-boat crossings are a national security emergency.

“We’ve seen terrorism, murders and rapes from those who’ve come here illegally. It’s outrageous.

“Women in towns with asylum hotels shouldn’t have to live in fear.

“The authorities must trust the public with the truth and act to protect them.”

Meanwhile, Farage demanded those involved in “hiding the truth” face the sack.

He claimed: “The council officials who hid the truth about these serious allegations should immediately face the sack.

“Decent people are getting angrier every day.”

Revelations about an alleged “cover-up” come just days after Baroness Casey’s “damning” grooming gangs probe admitted that authorities were in “denial” about the ethnicity of perpetrators.

Casey, who revealed that there was an example in Rotherham of a document redacting the ethnicity of the Pakistani perpetrator with tippex, said: “I thought whoever did that inadvertently was giving ammunition to the English Defence League that were every week, in and out, campaigning and doing their stuff in that town.

“I think the problem is that people are worried about being called racist…. if good people don’t grasp difficult things, bad people will, and that’s why we have to do it as a society.”

In her report, Casey added: “Flawed data is used repeatedly to dismiss claims about ‘Asian grooming gangs’ as sensationalised, biased or untrue.

“This does a disservice to victims and indeed all law-abiding people in Asian communities and plays into the hands of those who want to exploit it to sow division.”

Responding to The Sun’s report, the Government said: “We have taken action to ban foreign nationals who commit sexual offences from being granted asylum.”