Prison custody manager ‘scapegoated’ over bungled release of Hadush Kebatu, union claims
A prison officers’ union has questioned why an employee was “unfairly” suspended after an asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a teenage girl was mistakenly released.
The chief inspector of prisons said errors in releasing prisoners occur “all the time” and are signs of chaos in the system.
Mark Fairhurst, chief executive of the POA union, said the employee, who was a custody manager while at least two other senior staff were involved in the rescue of Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford, was the only person suspended.
The Ethiopian national was sentenced to 12 months in prison in September for sexual assault and was mistakenly released instead of being sent to an immigration detention center on Friday; this was a mistake that led to widespread condemnation.
He was arrested in London’s Finsbury Park on Sunday after a two-day manhunt.
Mr Fairhurst said Guard: “One of our members has been unfairly suspended because he was not the only person involved in this entire process. Our thoughts are with him and we will give him our full support.”
Downing Street insisted that Kebatu be deported.
The POA said the suspended prison employee was responsible for checking documents to ensure the correct inmate was released, but the paperwork was processed by other administrators.
Meanwhile, chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said early, inadvertent and even late release of prisoners was now a “widespread problem” that needed to be fixed.
Prison service leaders need to be held accountable to ensure staff are properly trained and offender management units that release prisoners have enough officers, he said.
According to government figures published in July, 262 prisoners were mistakenly released by March 2025; This represents a 128 percent increase over the previous 12 months, while 115 prisoners were released by mistake.
Housing minister Steve Reed called for a “bottom-up rebuild” of the criminal justice system.
“This person had no right to even be in the country in the first place, let alone commit the crimes he committed,” he said.
Blaming the previous Tory government for the debacle, Mr Reed said: “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.
“Under the previous government, a third of the professional staff in the criminal justice system was eliminated. We have to rebuild the system from the bottom up.”
The overcrowding crisis in Britain’s prisons is getting worse. Independent this month it revealed that the increased care workload is set to double between 2020 and 2024 to approach £2bn.
A quarter of prisoners in England and Wales are in prisons that are not fire-proof, and hundreds are in cells without toilets.
Kebatu, who lived at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, was convicted in September of making inappropriate comments to a 14-year-old girl before trying to kiss her, just eight days after arriving in the country on a small boat.
He was found guilty of five offenses after a three-day trial at Chelmsford and Colchester Magistrates’ Court and was told at the sentencing hearing that he had a “firm desire” to be deported.
In court he gave his date of birth as December 1986, meaning he was 38, but Essex Police records put it as December 1983, making him 41.
Kebatu’s crime sparked protests and counter-protests on the streets of Epping. The victim’s father said he hoped the sex offender would be deported immediately.
The Ministry of Justice referred the investigations to a statement by Justice Secretary David Lammy to be presented to the House of Commons on Monday.
