Epping migrant sex offender last seen in London, police say

A migrant sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison on Friday was “last seen in London”, police have said, with officers scouring CCTV in an effort to locate him.

Hadush Kebatu was set free in error weeks after being jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, Essex, while staying in an asylum hotel.

The Ethiopian, who travelled to the UK on a small boat, was due to be moved to an immigration detention centre ahead of his planned deportation when he was released.

“It is not lost on us that this situation is concerning to people, and we are committed to locating and arresting him as quickly as possible,” Essex Police said.

The force said its “enquiries are continuing at pace to locate and arrest” Kebatu, and described the investigation as “fast-moving and complex”, with officers working through the night to review footage.

The force earlier confirmed Kebatu boarded a London-bound train at Chelmsford station at 12:41 on Friday.

Officers were informed by the Prison Service that there been “an error” at 12:57 and the search began.

Sir Keir Starmer described the release as “totally unacceptable” and said Kebatu “must be caught and deported for his crimes”.

The Prison Service has removed an officer from discharging duties while an investigation takes place.

John Podmore – a former governor of HMP Brixton, Belmarsh and Swaleside, and a former prison inspector – said the process of moving prisoners is “fairly complicated” and he hoped a “lower down official is not thrown under the bus”.

“This is not one person making one decision, there should be checks by a range of people up and down the hierarchy,” Mr Podmore told Today.

“It should be seen in the context of wider failure. I am afraid this is what happens in a broken system and the prison system is broken. This is a symptom of a wider failure of the prison and the probation service”

Neil Hudson, the Conservative MP for Epping Forest, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that people in his constituency were “deeply distressed” by the release.

He continued: “This sounds like an operational error, but the buck has to stop somewhere, and it has to stop at the top, at the justice secretary, the home secretary and the prime minister.”

Marie Goldman, Liberal Democrat MP for Chelmsford, has called for a public inquiry, saying: “We need to get to grips with what happened and why it happened.”

She told BBC Breakfast: “Chelmsford is a remand prison, which means it is used to having prisoners coming and going quite frequently.

“They are held in HMP Chelmsford for not a very long time, usually when they are waiting for trial or maybe for a couple of weeks after they have had trial and waiting to be transferred to another prison.

“If this sort of thing can happen at Chelmsford then it is very likely that it can happen elsewhere.”

Goldman also said she attempted to contact the prisoner governor for an explanation and was told “the governor was not speaking to stakeholders individually”, which she said was “unacceptable”.

Lammy said he was “appalled” and “livid on behalf of the public”.

He continued: “Let’s be clear Kebatu committed a nasty sexual assault involving a young child and a woman. And for those reasons this of course is very serious.”

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We are urgently working with police to return an offender to custody following a release in error at HMP Chelmsford.

“Public protection is our top priority, and we have launched an investigation into this incident.”

Kebatu’s arrest in July sparked protests outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, where he had been living after arriving in the UK on a small boat.

In September, Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard Kebatu tried to kiss a teenage girl on a bench and made numerous sexually explicit comments.

The following day, he encountered the same girl and tried to kiss her before sexually assaulting her. He also sexually assaulted a woman who had offered to help him draft a CV to find work.

During the trial, Kebatu gave his date of birth as December 1986, making him 38, but court records suggested he was 41.

He was found guilty of five offences and sentenced to 12 months. He was also given a five-year sexual harm prevention order, which banned him from approaching or contacting any female, and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

The court heard it was his “firm wish” to be deported.

It is not clear where Kebatu was being deported to but under the UK Borders Act 2007, a deportation order must be made where a foreign national has been convicted of an offence and has received a custodial sentence of at least 12 months.

In his sentencing remarks on 23 September, District Judge Christopher Williams said the time Kebatu had already spent in custody during his trial would count towards his sentence.

The judge added: “You will also be subject to an early release regime. The earliest date of your release will be calculated and you will be notified of this.”

Kebatu was arrested on 8 July and was released in error 108 days later. Upon his release he would have been eligible for a £76 discharge payment.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the release was a “level of incompetence that beggars belief”.

“Conservatives voted against Labour’s prisoner release program because it was putting predators back on our streets,” she said on X.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “He is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is broken.”

A report from His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service said 262 prisoners in England and Wales were released in error between April 2024 and March 2025, up from 115 in the previous 12 months.