Offender paid to ease deportation

A MIGRANT sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison was given £500 after threatening to disrupt his deportation flight back to Ethiopia, Downing Street has said.

- PRESS ASSOCIATION REPORTERS

‘The payment to Hadush Kebatu was an “operational decision” taken to avoid the risk of delay to his return and the higher cost of cancelling his journey, which would have run into several thousands of pounds, Number 10 said.

The Ethiopian national was forcibly removed to his home country on Tuesday night with a team of five escorts on the flight, and he arrived yesterday morning with no right to return to Britain, the Home Office said.

Downing Street said he had attempted to apply for a “facilitated return scheme,’ which under successive governments has offered foreign nationals resettlement grants of up to £1,500, but the bid was denied.

“However, given Kebatu threatened to disrupt the flight, an operational decision was taken to facilitate his return,’ the Prime Minister's official spokesman said.