Release left asylum seeker 'confused'

AN asylum seeker mistakenly released from prison returned in a “confused” state several times in a 90-minute period before staff sent him away to the railway station, a witness says.

- By Ben Mitchell

Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was jailed for a year last month for the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl and was freed from HMP Chelmsford instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre.

The Metropolitan Police, which is leading the manhunt for the migrant who had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, made a direct appeal to Kebatu to hand himself in.

They revealed he had taken “a number of journeys” across London since his release on Friday and had “access to funds”. He was wrongly categorised as a prisoner due to be released on licence, handed a £76 discharge grant and was last seen getting off a train at Stratford in East London at 1.12pm on Friday.

‘He was trying to do the right thing’

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