Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, who was jailed for the sexual assault of a teenage girl, was apprehended in Finsbury Park. Photo / CPS
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 (local time).
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.
Kebatu, who arrived in Britain on a small boat, was released from HMP Chelmsford on Friday, when he should have been sent to a detention centre for deportation to Ethiopia.
Sir Keir Starmer said: “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. We must make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
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 Rd.
Officers confirmed it was Kebatu and arrested him for being unlawfully at large.
The arrest took place just a short distance away from a children’s playground. A parent whose child was playing in the area said his release and subsequent manhunt was a “shambles”.
“It’s very concerning that people in charge of those organisations don’t have a better grip on things,” the man, who wished to remain anonymous, said. “And to have him wandering around puts people at risk.”
Kebatu, who had been housed in the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, was jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. The crime sparked protests in the town throughout summer.
After he was accidentally released, a witness said he saw guards repeatedly turn Kebatu away when he tried to return to jail, and direct him to Chelmsford railway station.
A delivery driver, named only as Sim, told Sky News that he saw Kebatu come out of the prison asking: “Where am I going? What am I doing?”
The driver claimed he saw the migrant loitering outside the building for around an hour and a half as he tried to find out where he should go.
He said that Kebatu knew he should have been deported instead of being freed, but prison staff were “basically sending him away” and saying to him: “Go, you’ve been released, you go.”
A nationwide manhunt was launched after HMP Chelmsford officials realised their mistake and alerted Essex Police on Friday at lunchtime.
Kebatu was caught on camera appearing to ask for directions in the centre of Chelmsford.
In footage posted on social media, Kebatu could be seen wearing a grey prison tracksuit, just 365m from the nearest police station. Shortly after, he boarded a train from Chelmsford to London.
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.
Commander James Conway, who oversaw the Metropolitan Police operation to find Kebatu, said: “This has been a diligent and fast-paced investigation led by specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police, supported by Essex Police and the British Transport Police.
“Information from the public led officers to Finsbury Park and, following a search, they located Mr Kebatu. He was detained by police but will be returned to the custody of the Prison Service.
“I am extremely grateful to the public for their support following our appeal, which assisted in locating Mr Kebatu.”
Kebatu 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.
The woman later called 999 after she spotted him being inappropriate to the same teenage girl who he sexually assaulted while she was wearing her school uniform.
The migrant was found guilty of five offences after a three-day trial at Chelmsford and Colchester magistrates’ courts in September.
The court was told at his sentencing hearing that it was his “firm wish” to be deported.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, told GB News it was a “relief” Kebatu had been captured.
“I just want to say a massive thank you to members of the public whose vigilance provided the police with vital intelligence that allowed him to be tracked down to [Finsbury] Park where he’s been arrested and detained and will now be deported,” he told the Camilla Tominey show.
Streeting added that the Government would be “transparent and upfront with Parliament and with the public” about the error that led to Kebatu’s release, adding that the “whole country has been shocked, frankly, that this could have happened”.
Marie Goldman, Lib Dem MP for Chelmsford, called for a “rapid” national inquiry into the blunder.
“I am relieved that Hadush Kebatu has been found and is back in custody. He must now be deported,” she said.
“But this doesn’t excuse the serious mistakes that let this happen in the first place. It’s unacceptable that the safety of my constituents, and the people of London, was ever put at risk.”
Zia Yusuf, head of policy for Reform UK, told Sky News that “the state of Britain’s descent into a Monty Python sketch was almost complete”.
“This is a man who witnesses said was actively trying to go back into prison after being accidentally let go.
“So, glad he’s been apprehended but it’s absolutely shocking and how any victim of sexual assault could look at this Labour government and Jess Phillips in particular, and the whole state apparatus right now, and have any degree of confidence is beyond me.”
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