An Ethiopian man who became the focus of far-right demonstrations outside a hotel in Epping after being accused of sexually assaulting two teenagers has told a court he did not touch the girls.

“I’m not a wild animal. I can’t do these kind of things,” Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an asylum seeker housed at the Bell hotel in Epping, told his trial at Colchester magistrates court on Wednesday.

Speaking through an interpreter, he added: “This is anti-Christian – these are just children, innocent children.”

Kebatu, who told the court he was a sports teacher in Ethiopia, denies three counts of sexual assault against two 14-year-old girls and a woman in Epping town centre on 7 and 8 July this year. He also denies one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and one count of harassment without violence.

He told the court he only said “hello” to the schoolgirl and her friends in Epping town centre and nothing more because he was “worried” about his asylum case.

Earlier on Wednesday, Kebatu’s adult accuser told the court via video link that she was shocked and angry after being touched on the thigh by Kebatu and witnessing him touch one of the girls on 8 July.

Kebatu claimed she was drunk and had threatened to call the police if he failed to come to her house, the court heard.

Questioned about why he could be seen in CCTV footage on his knees saying sorry to the woman, the defendant said: “At that time she was drunk, she was very agitated and I just wanted to calm her.”

He added: “I was going to the Bell hotel at that time and I was worried about the ramifications on the other immigrants.”

The woman, who exercised her right to remain anonymous, said she was “shocked” and “uncomfortable” after Kebatu touched her when she had offered to help him with his CV. She said she also saw him touching one of the girls.

Molly Dyas, defending Kebatu, asked the woman if she had made up the allegations because she was angry that Kebatu was an asylum seeker.

The woman replied: “I didn’t make up any allegation. I know exactly what I saw. I’ve no issue with asylum seekers … I was angry that he had touched a 14-year-old girl.”

She said the defendant was “begging, pleading and apologising” when she confronted him about an alleged sexual assault on the girl.

Cross-examining Kebatu, the prosecutor Stuart Cowen said: “You are a sexual predator who tried to assault one girl and one woman in exactly the same way. That is the truth, isn’t it?”

Kebatu responded: “I am not such a person. I can’t do these kind of things.”

The defendant said he had been living in the hotel for about a week before his arrest, after travelling through Sudan, Libya, Italy and France in order to get to the UK. He told the court he paid about €1,800 (£1,550) to board a small boat and cross the Channel.

Cowen acknowledged that Kebatu’s case had “attracted quite a lot of publicity because of the defendant’s personal circumstances”.

Kebatu’s arrest last month sparked weeks of violent demonstrations outside the Bell hotel. Epping Forest council has since won a court injunction to stop the hotel being used to house asylum seekers.

The district judge Christopher Williams adjourned the trial until 4 September.