Mistakenly released sex offender caught in London

The migrant who sexually assaulted a woman and a 14-year-old girl has been recaptured after he was released from prison by mistake.

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN

Hadush Kebatu, who was released in error from HMP Chelmsford, was arrested by Metropolitan Police officers in Finsbury Park, north London, yesterday morning following a major manhunt.

He was supposed to have been sent to an immigration detention centre to be deported, but was mistakenly freed on Friday.

Essex Police said Kebatu, 41, boarded a London-bound train at Chelmsford at 12.41pm following the error.

He was spotted on CCTV inside a library in Dalston Square, east London, at 6pm that evening as the Metropolitan Police took over the hunt.

Yesterday Kebatu was spotted at a bus stop by a member of the public, who called the police at 8.03am. He was arrested 16 minutes later.

Jack Neill-Hall, 40, a dog-walker, saw him being led away by two female officers.

“He wasn’t struggling, he was walking quite calmly, a bit dejectedly,” he said. “He was staring down, he had his hood up, but it was a calm situation. It was a leisurely stroll out of the park with him with his hands cuffed, but he wasn’t trying to get away.”

Following Kebatu’s arrest, the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, said he would be deported and added: “We must make sure this doesn’t happen again.” The government faces questions over the blunder. In a statement on X/Twitter, he wrote: “Hadush Kebatu has been arrested and will be deported. Officers have worked quickly and diligently to bring him back into custody. We have ordered an investigation to establish what went wrong.”