Migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu is second person to be freed by mistake from HMP Chelmsford
The same prison responsible for mistakenly releasing an immigrant sex offender last week was also accused of releasing a fraudster two years ago.
In June 2023, a disguised email posing as Royal Courts of Justice correspondence was sent to HMP Chelmsford, instructing the prison to release convicted fraudster Junead Ahmed on bail.
At the time, Ahmed was awaiting sentencing after admitting posing as a doctor to rent a property he could not afford and to buy a house worth more than £2 million.
Ahmed was released from custody later the same day following instructions in the email, and it was only when staff received further emails from the same address a day later ordering the release of two other prisoners that they realized the emails were fake.
One of the emails named Charlotte Whittaker emerged during the chaos.
A member of the prison staff became suspicious of these orders and after further checks the Royal Courts of Justice confirmed that no release order had been granted for the two men and that Ahmed had been released in error.
Essex police said the email appeared to be genuine because it contained “a number of identifying marks” that made staff easily fooled.
On 23 June, Essex Police re-arrested Ahmed, who was hiding in the attic of his home after escaping from lawful custody.
Later that day, Charlotte Whittaker was also arrested at her home and her phone was seized; This showed messages between himself, Ahmed and his wife agreeing for two more prisoners to escape.
A three-day national manhunt was launched on Friday after a man named Hadush Kebatu, convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Epping, was mistakenly released by HMP Chelmsford.
The offender was later arrested on Sunday morning and remains in custody at HMP Wormwood Scrubs in West London.
Kebatu had to be transferred to an immigration removal center before being deported to his home country of Ethiopia.
He will now be waiting for a second flight to Ethiopia this week after accidentally missing the flight he was originally supposed to fly on during his release.
A police officer was immediately fired on Friday for the error following an internal investigation.
Addressing the House of Commons, Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was expected to announce an investigation into errors made, which would shed more light on failings at the prison.
Lammy stated that to prevent the mistake from being repeated in the future, all prisons would be required to go through advanced security measures before releasing any inmates, including completing a mandatory three-page checklist before inmates are released.
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But prison governors argue ministers’ response to this performance will only increase the already overloaded workload of prison staff and add an extra 45 minutes per prisoner.
These mistakes are becoming increasingly common, with the number of prisoners mistakenly released doubling last year. This is partly due to the emergency evacuation plan that the government implemented to address the problem of overcrowding and the lack of free prison cells.
By March 2025, 262 prisoners were accidentally released; This is up 128 percent from 115 last year.
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor warned that the mistake of releasing Kebatu had led to a much bigger and worse problem.
He said: “This is a case that’s in the news because it’s an incredibly high-profile prisoner convicted of a very serious crime. But the worry is that these things have been slipping through the cracks lately and I worry about that.”
