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A migrant sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison was seen by a delivery driver “returning four or five times” to reception after he hung out for about “an hour and a half”.
Hadush Kebatu was jailed for 12 months in September for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and another woman. former asylum seeker who lived here The Bell Hotel in EppingWas due to be deported, but was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford on Friday.
The Met Police are searching for the 38-year-old, who detectives say made several train journeys across London, before getting off at Stratford, Britain’s fifth-busiest railway station, at 1.10pm on Friday.
On Saturday, after police chiefs made a direct appeal to Kebatu, an interview was broadcast by Sky News with a delivery driver who said he had spoken to him while delivering fridges at the time of his release.
The driver, Sim, said that Kebtu knew he was to be deported and that he kept asking prison staff “what to do”, returning to prison reception “four or five times”.
“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 or what I’m doing,'” Sim told Sky News.
“He had a packet of paperwork in his hand and a bag full of papers… He knew he was deported. He came up to me and said, ‘I need your help.'”
Sim said that a member of prison staff “told him he had to get on a train” and instructed Kebatu to go to Chelmsford station to catch a train to London, and told him: “You have been released, you have been released.”
Sim said Kebtu waited outside the prison for about “an hour and a half” before leaving.
“He kept scratching his head and saying, ‘Where do I go, where do I go?’
“For the fourth or fifth time [he went into the reception] He started getting worried, he was feeling stressed. I don’t stand for that guy, but in my eyes he was trying to do the right thing. He knew he was being deported, but he didn’t know where he was going or how to get there.”
The police manhunt for Kebatu began after he was wrongly classified as a prisoner due to being released on licence, and given a £76 discharge grant. Wire Informed.
A prison officer has been removed from the duties of releasing prisoners while an investigation is underway.
Video circulating online shows a man resembling Kebatu wearing a gray tracksuit and carrying a plastic bag in Chelmsford town center shortly after his release.
In an update on Saturday, police said Kebatu had access to the money and had made several train journeys across London
Commander James Conway, who is leading the search operation, urged Kebatu to surrender himself. He said: “I am making a direct appeal to Mr Kebtu. We want to find you in a safe and controlled manner.
“When speaking to immigration staff you had already expressed your desire to return to Ethiopia.
“The best outcome for you is to contact us directly by either calling 999 or reporting yourself to the police station.”
Independent The Ministry of Justice was contacted, who sent a request for a statement to Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, who previously said he was “outraged on behalf of the public”.
He added: “I spoke to the Home Secretary today. I have launched an investigation into what happened in the prison service to make this happen.”
“But the important thing is that we protect the public. The important thing is that the police are able to do their job and find this person.”
During the hearing when Kebtu was convicted of sexually assaulting a girl, it was heard how he told two teenagers that he “wanted to have a child with each of them” and attempted to kiss one of the girls, before placing his hand on her thigh and caressing her hair.
It was also found that he had sexually harassed a woman by trying to kiss her, placing his hand on her leg and calling her beautiful.
Kebatu was found guilty of five offenses after a three-day trial at Chelmsford and Colchester magistrates’ courts.