This is the moment a sex offender migrant wrongly released from prison in a hugely embarrassing bungle for the Government has finally been deported from Britain. Footage from Sky News showed Ethiopian Hadush Kebatu being escorted onto a plane by guards at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday night.
The deportation brought to an end a sorry saga for the Home Office and Ministry of Justice which saw Kebatu wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford on Friday morning instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre. According to the Home Office, he has now finally arrived in Ethiopia and has no right to return to Britain.
The migrant, who had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, when he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman, travelled to London and was arrested on Sunday morning after a two-day manhunt.
The Home Office said Kebatu was removed on a flight to Ethiopia on Tuesday night and arrived on Wednesday morning. Sky News showed the moment he boarded a plane at Heathrow.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “Last week’s blunder should never have happened – and I share the public’s anger that it did. I would like to thank the police for rapidly bringing Mr Kebatu into custody and the public for their vigilance.
“I have pulled every lever to deport Mr Kebatu and remove him off British soil. I am pleased to confirm this vile child sex offender has been deported. Our streets are safer because of it.
“If you come to this country and commit crimes, we will remove you.”
In a worrying revelation, it has emerged five other prisoners have been released by mistake from jails over the last seven days, a union chief has said.
The national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), Mark Fairhurst, said more incidents have taken place in a week.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Fairhurst said Prison Service leaders have known mistaken releases have been a “regular occurrence” for the last year.
He added: “And only this week, over the last seven days, there’s been five releases in errors from five separate prisons.”
Mr Fairhurst added that two mistaken releases were made from HMP Pentonville, in north London, while the other three were at HMP Durham, The Mount prison in Hertfordshire, and from Reading Crown Court.