Hadush Kebatu was deported to Ethiopia after being mistakenly released from prison, receiving a £500 payment to avoid disruption. The removal team made the operational decision, unrelated to ministers, to facilitate the deportation which occurred on Tuesday night, with Kebatu arriving in Ethiopia the following morning with no possibility of returning to the UK.
It was deemed that detaining Kebatu further and organizing a new flight would have been a slower and more costly process, potentially facing legal challenges. Therefore, canceling the initial flight would have incurred significant expenses. Kebatu, aged 38, had recently served a 12-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Essex.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood expressed satisfaction that Kebatu, a convicted sex offender, had been successfully deported, emphasizing the improved safety of the streets. Initially scheduled for deportation, Kebatu triggered a manhunt in the south-east after fleeing to London from the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, where the crimes were committed.
Kebatu was apprehended in the Finsbury Park area on Sunday morning by plain-clothed officers and escorted to a police van. The Ethiopian national, who entered the UK by boat, left prison with personal funds but lacked a discharge grant for living expenses. Witnesses reported Kebatu’s confused attempts to return to HMP Chelmsford multiple times, only to be redirected to the railway station by prison staff. An investigation is ongoing, with a prison officer temporarily relieved of prisoner discharge duties.
