A manhunt is under way for Hadush Kebatu after he was accidentally released from jail, ITV News Correspondent Ian Woods reports.
The manhunt is continue for an asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl, after he was accidentally released from prison.
Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, was jailed for 12 months in September. Reports of his crimes triggered months of anti-asylum seeker protests in Epping and other areas across the country.
He was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre to be deported, but was freed at HMP Chelmsford on Friday by mistake.
Essex Police said on Saturday morning the was last seen in the London area.
“Inquiries are continuing at pace this morning to locate and arrest a man following a Prison Service releasing error yesterday,” the force said in a statement.
“Our inquiries show that he was last seen in the London area, and this is our focus.
“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.”
Justice secretary David Lammy said on Friday night that Kebatu was “at large”, after he was seen boarding a train at Chelmsford.
A video circulating online appears to show Kebatu walking along Chelmsford high street, with authorities saying he was later seen getting a train to London on Friday afternoon. ITV News has been unable to independently verify the footage.
The deputy prime minister said he was “livid on behalf of the public” about the mishap and urged anyone with information on his whereabouts to call 999. He added that he had launched an investigation into the error.
A statement from Essex Police said that it had officers “working to urgently locate and detain him” after he was seen to catch a train at Chelmsford railway station.
The force said “fast-paced enquiries have shown that the man boarded a London-bound train at Chelmsford Railway Station at 12.41pm on Friday”.
The Greater Anglia train stopped at Shenfield and Stratford before arriving at London Liverpool Street at 13:18pm, according to Trainline data.
A prison officer has been taken off duty to discharge prisoners while an investigation is underway.
Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat days before the incidents, told two teenagers he wanted to “have a baby with each of them” and attempted to kiss them, before going on to put his hand on one of the girls’ thighs and stroke her hair, his trial was told.
Sentencing Kebatu last month, a judge told him his behaviour “really highlights the poor regard you must have for women”.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the error “unacceptable”.
Starmer said: “The mistaken release at HMP Chelmsford is totally unacceptable. I am appalled that it has happened, and it’s being investigated.”
A spokesperson for Essex Police said the force was notified by the prison service at 12.57pm today of an “error” to do with the “release of an individual”.
“As a result of that, we have launched a search operation to locate them and are working closely with partner agencies,” the statement added.
A Prison Service spokesperson said it is urgently working with police to return the offender.
Reacting to the incident, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “The Epping hotel migrant sex attacker has been accidentally freed rather than deported. He is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is broken.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the incident was “a level of incompetence that beggars belief.”
The local MP for Chelmsford, Marie Goldman, has called for a “rapid public inquiry” into how the sex offender was accidentally released from jail once the manhunt to find him is over.
In a statement, the Liberal Democrat MP said: “The police must do everything they can to ensure that this man is returned to custody immediately so that he is deported at once.
“Once the manhunt is over, there must be a full, rapid public inquiry into how this happened. This is utterly unacceptable and has potentially put my constituents in danger.”
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