You couldn’t make this up. I’ll take it from the Telegraph for quickness, but all the national newspapers have it
The Epping Hotel asylum seeker who sparked nationwide protests after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl has been accidentally released from jail.
Hadush Kebatu, 38, who came to Britain on a small boat, was meant to be sent to an
immigration detention centre on Friday ahead of his deportation back to Ethiopia.
But he was mistakenly set free from HMP Chelmsford after “human error” meant he was wrongly categorised as a prisoner due to be released on licence rather than a foreign offender set for deportation.
Kebatu was even handed a £76 subsistence payment to cover his first week’s expenses.
A video taken by a member of the public appeared to show Kebatu standing in a busy street in Chelmsford following his accidental release.
In the footage, posted on social media, Kebatu can be seen wearing a grey prison tracksuit while appearing to ask for directions from three men.
The location was less than 400 yards from the nearest police station.
On Friday evening, Essex Police confirmed Kebatu boarded a London-bound train at Chelmsford railway station at 12.41pm following his release.
The Greater Anglia train stopped at Shenfield and Stratford before arriving at London Liverpool Street at 1.18pm.
A senior justice source described the error as “the mother of all f—ups”. It is understood the prison officer who authorised his release has been removed from discharging duties while an urgent investigation takes place.
A demonstration was called in Epping at very short notice last night. It was peacable
Last night, the teenager’s father was visibly upset as he turned up at HMP Chelmsford – asking for answers on how Kebatu was freed just one month into a 12-month sentence.
He did not want to speak on camera – but told Sky correspondent Mollie Malone that he was “frustrated” at the thought of the Ethiopian national being back on the streets. “The justice system has let us down,” he said.
A manhunt is underway. I’d be interested to know what connections he formed while in prison.
Update: The migrant sex offender mistakenly released from prison has been arrested in London, the Metropolitan Police has confirmed. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, who was jailed for the sexual assault of a teenage girl, was apprehended in Finsbury Park on Sunday morning.
He was arrested after a member of the public recognised him and alerted the police. He was wearing a dark-coloured jacket with a black-and-grey hoodie, jeans and grey trainers. Police were called at 8.03am by a member of the public who had seen Kebatu at a bus stop near Finsbury Park Station. The Met deployed officers to search the area and they spotted him in Finsbury Park at 8.19am, a short distance from its southern exit towards Finsbury Park Road.
Scotland Yard took over the search on Saturday, saying that Kebatu had been spotted in the Stratford area after getting off a train from Chelmsford to London Liverpool Street. It said that he got off the train at Stratford, in east London, at around 1.06pm on Friday.
The force issued CCTV of him in a library, in Dalston Square at 6pm on Saturday, carrying his belongings in a “distinctive white bag with pictures of avocados on it” and still wearing his prison-issue grey tracksuit top and bottoms.
One Response
Mark Steyn:
“In Great Britain everything is policed except crime.”