❓WHAT HAPPENED: Migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly released from His Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Chelmsford but deported to Ethiopia after a manhunt.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Hadush Kebatu, British authorities.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Kebatu was released on Friday, deported on the night of October 28, and arrived in Ethiopia on the morning of the 29th.
🎯IMPACT: The incident highlights the inept handling of foreign criminals.
A migrant child sex offender who triggered nationwide protests across Britain earlier this year was mistakenly released from prison before finally being deported to Ethiopia after a manhunt this week. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an Ethiopian national who arrived in Britain by small boat in June, was serving time at His Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Chelmsford after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, where he had been housed as an asylum seeker.
He was supposed to be transferred to an immigration detention centre on Friday but was wrongly freed, prompting a two-day manhunt by British authorities. Police eventually located Kebatu, who was deported to Ethiopia on Tuesday night under the United Kingdom’s voluntary return scheme. However, officials have since confirmed that the sex offender received a payment of about $635 to go quietly after threatening to physically resist removal.
Kebatu’s crimes earlier this year sparked large-scale protests outside migrant hotels and in several English cities. The demonstrations, initially led by local residents demanding tougher immigration controls, grew after reports emerged of other violent and sexual offences committed by asylum seekers. Some protests turned violent, with clashes between police, anti-immigration activists, and counter-demonstrators from far-left extremist groups.
Kebatu’s case reignited public debate about the government’s poor handling of the asylum system and the housing of migrants in taxpayer-funded hotels. The British Home Office later admitted that hundreds of asylum seekers accommodated in such facilities have been charged with serious crimes in recent years, including rape, assault, and drug offences.
Image via Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
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