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A former asylum seeker who sparked nationwide protests after sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl near an asylum hotel in Epping has been accidentally released from prison, sparking a police manhunt.
The Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was jailed for 12 months in September for sexual assault and made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order.
The 41-year-old was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre to be deported but was accidentally freed by mistake, it has emerged, and police in Essex are now urgently trying to find him.
The deputy prime minister, David Lammy, said: “I am appalled at the release in error at HMP Chelmsford. We are urgently working with the police to track him down and I’ve ordered an urgent investigation. Kebatu must be deported for his crimes, not on our streets.”
A Prison Service officer has since been removed from duties to discharge prisoners while an investigation is carried out.
Kebatu was found guilty of committing two counts of sexual assault and one of attempted sexual assault in July, days after arriving in the UK on a small boat and taking up residence at the Bell hotel in Epping.
He was also found guilty of one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and one count of harassment without violence, and has been in prison since 23 September.
His case triggered protests outside the Bell hotel, which far-right activists sought to exploit, leading to assaults on police officers and 32 arrests.
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 we have launched an investigation into this incident.”
The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, said: “The Epping hotel migrant sex attacker … is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is broken.”
The shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, said: “Remember: they told you that local mums who protested outside the hotel where this sex attacker stayed were the problem.”
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “It is disgraceful that a dangerous convicted pedophile who attacked a 14-year-old girl has been allowed to vanish. This despicable man is an illegal immigrant who should have been deported immediately he arrived.
“This is breathtaking incompetence by David Lammy and Shabana Mahmood. They have put our children at further risk by letting this dangerous illegal immigrant out on to our streets. They are responsible for anything he may do.
“This should never have happened in the first place. Illegal immigrants ought to be deported within a week – but the Labour government is too weak to do that.
“Whether it’s a migrant who had been removed breaking back into the UK, the collapse of the rape gang inquiry, new China spying revelations, record illegal entries and now this – it’s been another litany of failure from the Home Office and home secretary this week.”
The Liberal Democrat MP for Chelmsford, Marie Goldman, said she was in contact with both the police and the prison. “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. I expect answers from the Prison Service.”
On the afternoon of 7 July 2025, Kebatu was found to have tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl on a bench in Epping High Street before asking her to kiss him, while making sexually explicit comments.
The following afternoon, Kebatu encountered the same girl and again repeatedly tried to kiss her before sexually assaulting her. He made further sexually explicit requests of the girl, who informed him of her age and was wearing her school uniform in both encounters.
Shortly before this, Kebatu had sexually assaulted and attempted to kiss an adult woman who had offered him assistance crafting a CV.
After seeing Kebatu touching the girl, she notified police and he was arrested.
The judge at Chelmsford magistrates court said it must have been a “disgusting and sickening” experience for the girl, who said in a victim statement: “Every time I go out with my friends I am checking over my shoulder.”
Kebatu denied the charges and told the court he had worked as a teacher in Ethiopia. His barrister, Molly Dyas, said in her closing speech that he disputed “most of the alleged interaction with this group of children”.
The prosecutor, Stuart Cowen, who described Kebatu as a sexual predator, said the explanation he put forward at his trial was “so incredible that it lacks any credibility whatsoever”.
When he was convicted, the deputy chief crown prosecutor with CPS East of England, Rebecca Mundy, said she recognised the incident had become “a cause of deep concern for the local community”.
