Epping sex offender migrant will be forced on a plane this week for deportation after being recaptured, as Lammy shamelessly tries to blame Tories from 16 months ago

An Ethiopian sex attack migrant who was mistakenly released from prison will be deported from the UK in the coming days, the government confirmed today.

Hadush Kebatu was arrested by four officers in Finsbury Park, north London, at around 8.30am on Sunday, ending a nationwide manhunt after a humiliating blunder in which he was left adrift on the streets for three days.

Justice Minister David Lammy visited Wood Green Police Station today to thank the officers who detained Kebatu and confirmed the immigrant “will be deported this week”, calling the blunder “completely unacceptable”.

When pressed by journalists about why Kebatu could not be deported on the flight from London Heathrow to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa tonight, the Deputy Prime Minister said: ‘It is right that he is questioned by the police on his way from Essex to London.

‘It is true that we are getting to the bottom of what happened in these 48 hours, but I can assure you that he will be deported because he is expected to be deported. I expect that to happen this week.’

Mr Lammy then appeared to shamelessly place the blame on the Conservative Party when asked why 262 prisoners had been mistakenly released between March 2024 and 2025; This number increased by 128 percent compared to 115 the previous year.

He said: ‘You will know that we inherited a crumbling system where the previous government released people early without any review, civil servants were dismissed and there were many junior officers in the prison system.

‘All of this needs to be looked at closely to make sure the public is safe, and foreign nationals who commit crimes and should not be in the country absolutely need to be sent back to where they came from.’

Kebatu was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford on Friday, just four weeks after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while staying in an asylum seeker hotel in Epping, Essex.

The 38-year-old man, whose crimes sparked protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping and across the country, was awaiting transfer to an immigration detention center ahead of his planned deportation to Ethiopia, but incompetent prison staff released him instead.

This is the moment Hadush Kebatu (second from left) was arrested by Met Police officers in Finsbury Park, north London, on Sunday. He was seen wearing a dark puffer jacket, black and gray hoodie, jeans and gray sneakers.

Video footage (above) shows Kebatu asking locals for directions while wearing prison tracksuits in Chelmsford town center on Friday.

It is understood that after his release the convicted sex offender returned to prison but was repeatedly turned away by guards who directed him to Chelmsford railway station instead.

Kebatu was filmed speaking to members of the public in Chelmsford town center before boarding the train at 12.41pm towards Stratford, east London. He was wearing gray sweatpants from prison and a clear bag filled with his belongings.

On Friday evening Kebatu arrived in the Dalston area of ​​Hackney where he was seen wearing the same prison tracksuit while holding a white bag containing an avocado. He was seen walking up the stairs of a library in Dalston Square at around 6pm and was seen again two hours later.

His movements on Saturday are unclear but the Met Police today confirmed he was captured in Finsbury Park on Sunday morning, three days after he was mistakenly released. He will now be sent back to prison and then deported.

In the photo of his arrest, Kebatu was seen wearing a dark puffer jacket, black-gray hoodie, jeans and gray sneakers. It is not clear when Kebatu changed his clothes, but it was reported that he was given a £76 discharge allowance when he was released.

The Met confirmed that a member of the public saw a person matching Kebatu’s appearance at a bus stop near Finsbury Park Station at 8.03am. Police deployed officers and found Kebatu inside the park near the entrance opposite Finsbury Park Road at 8.19am.

He was later arrested for being an illegal fugitive.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said today: ‘Hadush Kebatu has been arrested and will be deported. Officers worked quickly and diligently to take him back into custody. We have ordered an investigation to determine what went wrong. We have to make sure this doesn’t happen again.’

Mr Lammy ordered ‘immediate strengthening of release controls and a thorough investigation into what went wrong’.

Confirmation of the arrest came shortly after Wes Streeting appealed for the public’s help in finding the sex attacker who was mistakenly released.

Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sunday Morning, the health minister said the government was ‘leaving no stone unturned’ to find Kebatu.

‘HE [Kebatu] He was last seen in East London and so I would ask people watching to look at footage of this man to make sure we are all alert and if seen to call 999 immediately.

‘We want him to be found, arrested and deported.’

He added: ‘This man was behind bars for serious sexual offences. He doesn’t need to be in this country. What actually should have happened was that he was transferred for deportation.

‘So the idea of ​​him wandering our streets is incredibly serious. ‘This is a serious failure.’

The cabinet minister admitted the erroneous statement showed something had gone “extraordinarily wrong”.

He added: ‘I’m as angry as the people watching this morning. You can’t understand how this happens. We do not want to bias the investigation. We’ll get to the bottom of exactly what went wrong.

‘Every day, there are millions of people working in the public sector doing great work. And we need to figure out how that happens when something like this goes spectacularly wrong.’

It turned out that prison officers told Kebatu that he had to go to the repatriation center on his own.

A delivery driver told Sky News: ‘I heard one of the officers say: ‘This is how you get to the station, you get off here…’ [he] He directed him to the station and said he had to take the train to get here… This conversation was in front of the prison.’

What caused further insecurity last night was when Kebatu spent more than 90 minutes outside the prison because he did not know ‘where to go or what to do’.

The driver who delivered the equipment to the prison said:'[The officers] In fact, we were sending him away saying, “Go, you are released, go.”‘

Kebatu was arrested by Met officers in London’s Finsbury Park area at around 8.30am this morning.

Footage shows Kebatu being put into the back of a police van after being arrested in Finsbury Park.

As the hunt moves into comedy, Wes Streeting appeals for the public’s help in finding the sex attacker who was mistakenly released.

The debacle has left Labor facing new questions about its handling of the immigration crisis.

It comes amid a backlash against efforts to tackle illegal immigration, as a man deported under France’s ‘one in, one out’ scheme re-crossed the Channel on a small boat and landed on British shores.

Conservative MP for Epping Forest, Neil Hudson, described Kebatu’s release as a “devastating mistake” that left the whole community “deeply upset, saddened and angry”, adding that “accountability must reach the highest level”.

According to the driver, even after his release, Kebatu continued to go ‘back and forth’ to the prison reception area asking for help and showed staff a ream of paperwork regarding his case.

“I’m not defending this guy, but in my eyes he wanted to do the right thing and go to the right place,” he said.

‘He knew he was going to be deported but didn’t know where to go or how to get there. He was constantly scratching his head and wondering, “Where will I go, where will I go?” ‘ he said.’

“You were released, you were released,” he said, adding that the officers had no intention of helping him.

Kebatu was spotted walking in Chelmsford, Essex, after being accidentally released from prison.

Kebatu was sentenced to one year in prison last month for attacking his 14-year-old victim. During his trial Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard he had acted ‘ignorantly and disgustingly’.

Even though the immigrant knew that ‘she was only 14 years old’, he got excited when he put his hand on the girl’s hips and caressed her hair. He said he wanted to have a baby with her and invited her back to The Bell Hotel, where he lived.

Kebatu then tried to kiss a woman who tried to intervene, then put his hand on her leg and told her she was beautiful.

The asylum seeker gave his age as 38 when he appeared in court, but the judge said he had seen information showing that he was 41 years old.

Met Police Commander James Conway called on Kebatu to surrender, saying: ‘We want to locate you in a safe and controlled manner. You had already expressed your desire to return to Ethiopia when speaking to immigration officials. The best outcome for you is to contact us directly.’

He said the asylum seeker had made ‘a number of journeys’ in London since his release on Friday and had ‘access to funds’.