Police in London and Essex are intensifying efforts to track down an asylum seeker who was wrongly freed from prison only weeks after being jailed for sexual offences against a teenage girl and a woman.
The man, identified as Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu, was supposed to be handed over to immigration authorities from HMP Chelmsford for deportation but was mistakenly released on Friday, sparking national outrage.
Justice Secretary David Lammy confirmed that the 41-year-old is “at large” and said officers from the Metropolitan Police, Essex Police, and the British Transport Police are coordinating the search. “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,” Lammy said, describing himself as “appalled” and “livid on behalf of the public.”
Authorities said Kebatu left Chelmsford Prison at midday and was later spotted boarding a train to London at 12:41. Essex Police were alerted by the Prison Service 16 minutes later that “an error” had occurred, prompting an immediate manhunt. Footage shared online appeared to show Kebatu walking along Chelmsford High Street in a prison-issued tracksuit carrying a small bag.
Kebatu was sentenced to 12 months in September after being found guilty of five offences, including the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl and a woman who had offered to help him find work. During the trial, he gave his date of birth as December 1986, though official records list his age as 41. The court heard he posed a “significant risk of reoffending.”
The sentencing judge, Christopher Williams, ruled that the time Kebatu spent in custody would count towards his sentence. “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,” the judge told him during the September 23 hearing.
Kebatu was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years and given a five-year sexual harm prevention order banning him from approaching or contacting any woman. The court noted it was his “firm wish” to be deported after serving his sentence.
Under the UK Borders Act 2007, any foreign national sentenced to at least 12 months in prison is automatically subject to a deportation order.
The Prison Service confirmed that an officer has been removed from duty pending an internal investigation.
“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,” a spokesperson said.
John Podmore, a former prison governor and inspector, said the mistake exposed deeper flaws in the justice system. “This is not one person making one decision, there should be checks by a range of people up and down the hierarchy,” he said.
“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.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the case as “totally unacceptable” and urged police to find Kebatu quickly. “He must be caught and deported for his crimes,” he said, noting that law enforcement was working “urgently to track him down.”
Anger has spread across Essex and Epping Forest, where residents expressed fear over the blunder. Local MP Neil Hudson said his community was “deeply distressed” and demanded accountability. “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,” he said.
Chelmsford MP Marie Goldman has called for a public inquiry, saying the prison’s processes need to be scrutinized. “We need to get to grips with what happened and why it happened,” she said. She explained that HMP Chelmsford often handles prisoners on remand or those waiting to be moved. “If this sort of thing can happen at Chelmsford then it is very likely that it can happen elsewhere.” Goldman added that her attempt to speak with the prison governor was unsuccessful, saying she was told “the governor was not speaking to stakeholders individually,” which she called “unacceptable.”
Kebatu had been arrested in July, triggering protests outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, where he had been staying after arriving in the UK by small boat. He was released in error after 108 days in custody and would have received a £76 discharge payment upon leaving prison.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch condemned the mistake as “a level of incompetence that beggars belief.” She said on X, “Conservatives voted against Labour’s prisoner release program because it was putting predators back on our streets.” Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said, “He is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is broken.”
A report by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service showed that 262 inmates were released in error between April 2024 and March 2025, compared with 115 the previous year, underlining growing concern about failures in the system.
