A SEX offender who was mistakenly released from prison just four weeks into his sentence has been arrested following an urgent manhunt.
It comes just hours after shocking CCTV footage emerged of Kebatu on Saturday strolling around East London as the manhunt became increasingly desperate.
Images released on Saturday showed the last time Kebatu was spottedCredit: PA
He wore his grey tracksuit and held a white bagCredit: PA
Hadush Kebatu, was jailed for 12 months for sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girlCredit: PA
Kebatu was spotted asking members of the public for directions on FridayCredit: X
, 41, was meant to be sent to an detention centre to be deported but instead was accidentally freed from prison yesterday.
Kebatu was arrested by Met officers in the Finsbury Park area of London at around 8.30am today.
Commander James Conway, who has overseen the 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.”
This comes after footage emerged of him on Saturday strolling inside a library in Dalston, East London, at around 6pm.
He was later seen “trying to get a free night’s stay” at the nearby Premier Inn, we can reveal.
The wrongly-freed inmate was wearing his prison-issue grey tracksuit top and bottoms in the most recent images of him.
A prison officer was suspended when it was discovered Kebatu had been mistakenly let out of the prison where he was supposed to be serving a 12-month sentence.
It was also revealed prison staff directed the migrant sex offender towards the station to help him get the train after being freed, according to a witness.
A delivery driver who spoke to wrongly released outside HMP Chelmsford alleged jail staff told the inmate “Go, you’ve been released, you go”.
The driver, called Sim, claimed Kebatu was “confused” and had approached him asking questions, as reported by Sky News .
“He came out of the airlock, and kept saying to the officers there, ‘Where am I going? What am I doing? I don’t know where I’m going and what I’m doing’,” said Sim.
“He knew he’d been deported. He came over to me and said, ‘I need you to help me.’
“His English was pretty good.”
Sim, who was making a delivery to the prison at the time, said jail staff pointed the convicted sex offender towards Chelmsford station.
The driver claimed Kebatu was loitering around outside HMP Chelmsford for 90minutes before he left.
“They [the officers] were basically sending him away, saying, ‘Go, you’ve been released, you go.'”, claimed Sim.
He added how the baffled inmate appeared very confused and kept asking where he should go.
The Metropolitan police took over in the hunt for Kebatu late on Saturday morning after his accidental jail release.
Kebatu was then seen sauntering along a busy high street just moments away from a police station shortly after he was let out of HMP Chelmsford in yesterday.
The crew tasked with discharging prisoners are understood to have been while an investigation is underway.
Dressed in his prison issued tracksuit the sex offender had casually strolled along the busy road, striking up a conversation with a group of men before walking off towards the train station.
Cops confirmed he was spotted boarding a from Chelmsford Station at 12.41pm yesterday afternoon, following his high street stroll.
He was then reported to have gotten off at station.
Cops labelled finding Hadush Kebatu as “a top priority”, with Justice Secretary considering him to be “at large in “.
CCTV from the Stratford area and “further afield” was examined, “including on the transport network, to establish information about his subsequent movements”.
The frantic manhunt has now come to an end with cops taking the mistakenly released sex offender back into custody.
Prime Minister after revelations of the prisoner “at large” stated: “The mistaken release at HMP Chelmsford is totally unacceptable.
“I am appalled that it has happened and it’s being investigated.”
“The police are working urgently to track him down, and my government is supporting them.
“This man must be caught and deported for his crimes.”
Kebatu was jailed after he was found guilty of touching, trying to kiss, and tell a schoolgirl he wanted to marry her in Epping on 7 and 8 July.
He carried out the vile offences just eight days after arriving in the UK on a small boat.
The lag has now been taken back into custody after cops managed to track him downCredit: PA
He was caged in September and had only been in prison for four weeks before the monumental blunder saw him let out.
A senior justice source said: “He has been released in error – this is the mother of all f**k ups.
“It is down to human error, with the wrong paperwork on it or something.
“David Lammy is aware – and is furious.”
It is understood that Kebatu was listed as an “escape risk” after he was jailed.
He was released on the expectation that he would be picked up by immigration enforcement for deportation – due on a flight “within days.”
It remains unclear what happened next.
The father of Kebatu’s you victim spoke out in the wake of the monumental blunder.
He told Sky News he felt “let down” by the authorities and was left “frustrated” thinking that Kebatu had managed to escape custody.
The father went on to say: “The justice system has let us down.”
It was revealed police failed to contact the schoolgirl victim or her family as they embarked on the manhunt.
Officers also told Chelmsford residents, from station staff to eyewitnesses, to “keep quiet” about the search for Kebatu.
A friend of her father told The Sun: “It’s appalling that the state didn’t even bother to tell the teenage girl and her family that the predator who attacked her was looming large.”
Station staff said officers instructed them not to speak about the search, while a homeless man, Steve, said: “The police asked me at around three if I’d seen the man, they seemed stressed, man.
“I got they didn’t want people to freak out, but it was blooming obvious with all the sirens around by that point.
“I also think they were trying to hide it from the press.”
A National Rail employee revealed his colleague spoke to Kebatu at the station, which is a 20-minute walk from the prison, where “he apparently was terrified and confused, and holding a bag.”
“Then at around three, when my shift started, hordes of police arrived but they told us not to tell anyone what was going on,” he added.
TIMELINE
- June 29: Kebatu arrives in the UK on a small boat having travelled through Sudan, Libya, Italy and France. He paid 2,500 euros (£2,155) to cross the Channel in a “rubber dinghy”.
- July 7: The 38-year-old makes sexually explicit comments to a 14-year-old girl who offered him some pizza in Epping, Essex, before trying to kiss her.
- July 8: Kebatu sexually assaults a woman and also tries to kiss her. He then encounters the girl from the previous day and again tries to kiss her before sexually assaulting her.
- The woman sees Kebatu with the girl and calls 999. He is arrested and charged overnight.
- July 10: Kebatu appears at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court for the first time where he denies charges of sexual assault.
- July 13: The first of multiple anti-immigration demonstrations are held outside the Bell Hotel in Epping where Kebatu is housed with other asylum seekers.
- August 19: Epping Forest District Council is granted a temporary High Court injunction blocking the accommodation of asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel.
- August 26: The trial of Kebatu commences at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court
- August 27: Kebatu tells his trial that he was a sports teacher in his home country, and denies the offences, saying: “I’m not a wild animal.”
- August 29: The temporary injunction on the Bell Hotel, operated by Somani Hotels, is overturned at the Court of Appeal, which rules “that the closure of one site means capacity needs to be identified elsewhere in the system”.
- September 4: Kebatu is found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, one count of attempted sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, and one count of harassment without violence.
- September 23: Kebatu is sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years, as well as being made the subject of a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. He is also told that he faces deportation.
- October 24: Kebatu is accidentally released from HMP Chelmsford instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre to be deported. He is seen catching a London-bound train from Chelmsford station.
- October 25 AM: Essex Police says officers are working with the Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police as Kebatu is believed to be in the London area.
- October 25 PM: CCTV of Kebatu at a library in Dalston appears.
- October 26: Information emerges that Kebatu was later seen “trying to get a free night’s stay” at the nearby Premier Inn.
Reform leader was left seething at the news, he 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.”
Kebatu’s arrest led to a wave of demonstrations outside The Bell Hotel, in Epping and at other migrant hotels across the country.
He was housed in The Bell Hotel as an asylum seeker from when he committed the offences that saw him jailed.
He was reportedly being “protected” in a cushy where lags can learn to be barbers or baristas.
Kebatu was having contact with other inmates at the Category B jail – which previously held shamed reality star – limited for his own protection.
He had been placed on a “standard” regime at the jail which means he was allowed a Freeview TV, access to and gym visits – and was given around £20 per week in the prison shop.
Responding to the convicted sex offenders accidental release, Shadow Justice Secretary said: “Remember: they told you that local mums who protested outside the hotel where this sex attacker stayed were the problem.”
A critical incident was declared after Kebatu was let out to roam the streets with Essex Police frantically trying to track him down.
Number of prisoners released in error has more than doubled
The number of prisoners released in error more than doubled in the year to March 2025, Government data shows.
A report by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) said 262 prisoners were released in error from April 2024 to March 2025, up from 115 in the year to March 2024.
HMPPS said in the report that releases in error “remain infrequent” and believes the rise is linked to changes in the law, and the early release scheme which Labour introduced in September 2024.
Thousands of inmates have been freed early since then in a bid to cut jail overcrowding, by temporarily reducing the proportion of sentences which some prisoners must serve behind bars in England and Wales from 50% to 40%.
A number of the 262 were released in error when the early release scheme began, HMPPS said, because of an issue with a repealed breach of restraining order offence.
Those prisoners were rearrested and returned to custody, the report, published this summer, said.
Prisoners are considered “released in error” if they are wrongly discharged from prison or court, and it can happen when a sentence is miscalculated or the wrong person is discharged, among other reasons.
HMPPS said year on year changes in the number of prisoners released in error “should be considered in the context of the number of releases in the same time period and changes in the operational environment.”
Asylum seeker Abel, 21, who feared speaking to the press would impact his claim, said: “[Kebatu] knows a friend of mine, he was asking him for money earlier, I think.”
The Ethiopian migrant added: “He said no, he wouldn’t help, but people are saying that someone did help him. I don’t know who, but this is going to make people hate us more.”
A manager who didn’t want to be named said he noticed the man looking “confused, and very lost” with a plastic bag near the Boswell Hotel a few minutes walk from the prison in the “late morning,” around 11 he estimated.
Another asylum seeker, who doesn’t wish to be named, said: “I think he knows people at King William Court, from Ethiopia, like from childhood.”
Ethiopian himself, he said he’d known “of him since I was a kid, but not personally.”
“I’m pretty sure he tried to phone some of them, and they probably will try and help, but I don’t get involved with people who mess with children.”
The forty-two-year-old dad of three girls said: “I thought he looked familiar but it never occurred to me it could be that paedo, but he looked crushed, like broken.
“He was asking for directions to the train, he asked me, and I just pointed because he creeped me out. He then mentioned the city centre and a block near the cathedral.
“He must have mates in the posh apartments in town that they’ve been given in town while the rest of us pay more and more tax for men to attack our women and girls.”
Patricia Clearwater, 53, thinks she unknowingly walked past him outside Pret, having seen the viral clip filmed at 12.07pm.
The care worker said, “When I saw the video, my blood ran cold. I must have been metres away from him because I recognise my friend in the backdrop of the video.
“This is the friendliest town; kids walk around here unaccompanied because it’s so safe. How could the government cock up like this.
“This country is going to the dogs, and now we have a pervert wandering around in broad daylight. I have daughters, one of them is pregnant, what world is the little one coming into?”
Meanwhile Father of four, Rob Painter, 43, said: “My teenage daughters are literally out on the town right now with no idea. I’m going to go find them and bring them home now.
“Why on earth do we pay taxes for this s**t show. They let them in and then they can’t even deport them.”
Police were spotted scouring the buzzing pub, the Ivory Peg on New London Road yesterday afternoon.
Christopher Hann spotted a police chopper at around 1pm and claimed it was circling above Highlands Park for at least 20 mintues.
The father, who lives close to the Beaulieu estate, ten minutes from HMP Chelmsford said: “I am really not happy about it, especially as it’s so close to home. I regularly go on bike rides and I could make it to the prison in 10-15 minutes.”
A station employee added: “Kebatu had a chat with my colleague before I got in at 3.20om.”
Commenting on two police sprinting past him, he continued: “It’s been nuts, they’ve been in and out all day.”
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 .”
The Ethiopian was only in Chelmsford prison for a matter of weeks before he was accidentally releasedCredit: Getty 
