Accidental release of migrant sex offender is sign of ‘broken’ justice system, minister says
The accidental release of an immigrant sex offender from prison is a sign that the UK justice system is “broken”, a minister has said.
Steve Reed has called for a “bottom-up rebuild” of the criminal justice system after the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu, who was jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
The Ethiopian national was jailed for 12 months in September for the offense and was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford on Friday morning rather than being sent to an immigration detention centre, prompting widespread condemnation.
Speaking to Sky News on Monday, the housing secretary said: “This individual had no right to be in the country in the first place, let alone commit the crimes he committed.
“I’m sure everyone watching was shocked to see this individual accidentally released. It wasn’t something he did to escape; he was released in a way that he shouldn’t have been. Now isn’t this a sign that the criminal justice system is broken?”
Blaming the previous Tory government for the debacle, Mr Reed said: “But we know this because when we were elected the prisons were full. There was no room to house people sentenced to prison in the courts. A third of the professional staff in the criminal justice system were eliminated under the previous government. We are having to rebuild it from the bottom up.”
Prisons in the UK are currently in crisis and facing overcrowding problems. Independent This month it revealed conditions were worse than ever, with the maintenance backlog doubling from 2020 to 2024 to approach £2bn.
A quarter of prisoners in England and Wales are locked in prisons that are not fire-safe, while hundreds are held in cells without toilets and forced to defecate in buckets and bags if there are not enough staff to allow them to use the toilet during the night.
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor warned on Monday after the latest fiasco that changes to visa rules coming into force in the new year would have a “hugely damaging” impact on already overstretched prison staff numbers.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There are a large number of West African prison officers, trusted by many prisoners, who are in danger of having their visas canceled due to changes in policy at the Home Office, and that will have a hugely damaging effect on some prisons. “There are a number of prisons that will lose so many officers that they will be very difficult to run.”
Mr Taylor added that he had not yet seen details of the extra checks prison governors had been ordered to carry out when prisoners were released.
He said: “I haven’t actually seen the checklist. I can certainly understand that ministers are furious about this incident and want to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Is it proportionate? Well, we’ll have to look at the checklist over the course of this week.”
Justice Minister David Lammy will set out a series of measures aimed at strengthening the system as he faces questions about MPs’ blunders in parliament.
Kebatu, who was living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, when he sexually assaulted the girl, traveled to London after being released from HMP Chelmsford and was arrested in Finsbury Park on Sunday morning after a two-day manhunt.
The father of Kebatu’s teenage victim said he hoped the sex offender would be “immediately deported”; The justice minister also said this should happen next week.
Mr Reed told broadcasters on Monday morning that he shared their “disappointment and anger” and promised an independent investigation into what happened in parliament on Monday.
According to government figures published in July, 262 prisoners were mistakenly released by March 2025; a 128 percent increase from 115 inmates in the previous 12 months.
But Mr Reed insisted there had been no change in policy that led to the rise under Labor.
