Migrant sex offender mistakenly freed from prison to be deported ‘imminently’

Downing Street has insisted that an asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a teenage girl and was mistakenly freed from prison will be deported “imminently”.

Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu was wrongly released 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 sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman, later travelled to London and was arrested on Sunday morning in Finsbury Park after a two-day manhunt.

The father of Kebatu’s teenage victim had said he hopes the sex offender will be “deported immediately”.

Asked on Monday when Kebatu would be removed from the country, the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson said “you have us on record from this morning that we expect that to happen imminently”, and suggested that would be within a few days.

He said prison release errors “are never acceptable” and “this is another symptom of the justice system crisis inherited by this Government having suffered cuts to staffing, failure to build prison places” and “chronic underinvestment”.

It comes as the chief inspector of prisons told the PA news agency that mistakes over prisoner releases are happening “all the time” and are symptomatic of the chaos within the system.

Charlie Taylor said prisoners being released early, in error or even late is an “endemic problem” now that needs to be fixed by prison service leaders.

Justice Secretary David Lammy will set out a series of measures aimed at strengthening the system as he faces questions about the blunder from MPs in Parliament on Monday.

Prisons are also expected to begin enhanced checks before inmates are released following the incident.

According to Government figures published in July, 262 prisoners were released in error in the year to March 2025 – a 128% increase on 115 in the previous 12 months.

Mr Taylor told PA that the prison service needs to be accountable to make sure staff are properly trained and that offender management units, that carry out releasing prisoners – have enough officers to do it.

Communities Secretary Steve Reed also told broadcasters on Monday morning that he shared their “frustration and fury” as he conceded the justice system was “broken”.

He said Mr Lammy will announce an independent inquiry into what happened in Parliament later on Monday, following widespread condemnation of the error among opposition critics.

Following Kebatu’s arrest, Chelmsford’s Liberal Democrat MP Marie Goldman called for a “rapid” national probe, saying: “It’s unacceptable that the safety of my constituents, and the people of London, was ever put at risk.”

“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.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Mr Lammy and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood had questions to answer over the case, and should apologise “for their failures”.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said that “under Labour, victims are failed, criminals walk free and trust in policing has collapsed”.

Reform UK head of policy Zia Yusuf questioned how sexual assault victims could have confidence in the system.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer confirmed an investigation has been ordered to establish what went wrong, adding: “We must make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

A prison officer has been suspended while a probe takes place.

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.

He 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.

Kebatu was found guilty of five offences after a three-day trial at Chelmsford and Colchester Magistrates’ Courts in September, and his sentencing hearing heard it was his “firm wish” to be deported.

In court, he 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 sparked protests and counter-protests on the streets in Epping, and eventually outside hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.