Migrant sex offender mistakenly released from prison arrested

An asylum seeker sex offender mistakenly released from prison has been arrested following a high-profile manhunt.

Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu was jailed for 12 months in September for the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl and was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford on Friday morning instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre.

The migrant, who had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, when he assaulted the girl, took a train from Chelmsford to Stratford, east London, the day he was released and was later spotted in Dalston carrying a white bag with pictures of avocados on it.

Officers found and arrested him inside Finsbury Park at around 8.30am on Sunday after a member of the public spotted him at a nearby bus stop, according to the Metropolitan Police.

Sir Keir Starmer confirmed Kebatu will be deported, which could happen as early as next week.

“Officers have worked quickly and diligently to bring him back into custody,” the Prime Minister said.

“We have ordered an investigation to establish what went wrong. We must make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

A Home Office source said: “Kebatu was always due to be deported next week. That’s the plan we are still working towards.”

Pictures appeared to show Kebatu being led away with his hands behind his back by female officers outside the park.

A witness told The Sun: “There was one plain-clothes female officer and another woman officer in uniform.

“Two uniformed male officers wearing blue forensics gloves joined them and put him in the back of a van.

“He was handcuffed behind his back and looked pretty glum. There was no struggle.

“People around recognised him immediately but let the police get on with their job.”

Chelmsford’s Liberal Democrat MP Marie Goldman called for a “rapid” national inquiry into the blunder.

“It’s unacceptable that the safety of my constituents, and the people of London, was ever put at risk,” she said.

“The prison service had several chances to fix it and failed.

“The Government has serious questions to answer and major work to do to make the system fit for purpose. It certainly isn’t at the moment.

“A rapid, national inquiry must happen to get to the bottom of this.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said he remains “shocked that this inept Labour Government let him out in the first place”.

The Conservative MP for Croydon South told GB News: “They should never have allowed his release and I think David Lammy and Shabana Mahmood have questions to answer because they have presided over this system.

“What should happen now to this man is that he should be immediately deported. He is quite clearly a risk to women and girls.”

Zia Yusuf, head of policy for Reform UK, said he was “relieved” Kebatu has been apprehended.

He told Sky News: “This is a man who eyewitnesses said was actively trying to go back into prison after being accidentally let go.

“So, look, glad he’s been apprehended but I mean it’s absolutely shocking and how any victim of sexual assault could look at this Labour Government and Jess Phillips in particular, and the whole state apparatus right now, and have any degree of confidence is beyond me.”

A prison officer has been taken off duties to discharge prisoners while an investigation takes place.

Commander James Conway, of the Met Police, said: “This has been a diligent and fast-paced investigation led by specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police, supported by Essex Police and the British Transport Police.

“Information from the public led officers to Finsbury Park and following a search, they located Mr Kebatu.

“He was detained by police, but will be returned to the custody of the prison service.

“I am extremely grateful to the public for their support following our appeal, which assisted in locating Mr Kebatu.”

It is understood Kebatu, who crossed the Channel in a small boat to enter the UK on June 29, left prison with an amount of personal money but was not given a discharge grant to cover subsistence costs.

A delivery driver described seeing Kebatu return to HMP Chelmsford in a “very confused” state “four or five times”, only to be turned away by prison staff and directed to the railway station.

The driver, named only as Sim, told Sky News he saw Kebatu come out of the prison saying: “Where am I going? What am I doing?”

He said Kebatu knew he should be deported but the prison staff were “basically sending him away” and saying to him, “Go, you’ve been released, you go”.

In the 12 months to March this year, 262 prisoners were released in error in England and Wales, according to the prison service’s annual digest – that was a 128% increase from 115 the previous year, with 233 involving prisons.

A report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons, after an inspection in January and February 2024, said HMP Chelmsford faced “considerable pressures” because of “national capacity issues” while suffering staff shortfalls in reception and the pre-release team.

Kebatu was convicted of making inappropriate comments to a 14-year-old girl before he tried to kiss her on July 7 – just eight days after he arrived in the country on a small boat.

His trial also heard that a day later, he sexually assaulted a woman by trying to kiss her, putting his hand on her leg and telling her she was pretty.

The woman later called 999 after she spotted him being inappropriate to the same teenage girl who he sexually assaulted while she was wearing her school uniform.

The migrant was found guilty of five offences after a three-day trial at Chelmsford and Colchester magistrates’ courts in September.

The court was told at his sentencing hearing that it was his “firm wish” to be deported.

In court, Kebatu gave his date of birth through a translator as being in December 1986, making him 38 years old, although Essex Police have said their records state his date of birth is in December 1983, making him 41.

Kebatu’s crime led to protesters and counter-protesters taking to the streets in Epping, and eventually outside hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.