Ministers warned against scapegoating prison staff over mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu | Prisons and probation

Ministers have been warned against scapegoating prison staff as they try to contain the political fallout from the mistaken release of an asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a teenage girl.

The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) questioned why a single member of staff had been “unfairly” suspended, as justice minister David Lammy announced an investigation and blamed “human error” for the accidental release of Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford on Friday.

Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, said that if there was a systemic problem it would be “very easy to throw someone under the bus for this in Chelmsford”.

The governors said “the checklist will not work” after Lammy said a strict inventory would be created to prevent further errors during the broadcast.

Former Metropolitan police assistant commissioner Dame Lynne Owens will chair the investigation into why the Ethiopian national was released rather than sent to an immigration detention center on Friday morning.

Kebatu, who was living at the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex, when he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl, traveled to London after his release and was arrested in Finsbury Park on Sunday morning after a two-day search.

Lammy told MPs he was set for deportation under the early removal scheme (ERS) for foreign-born offenders but was released into society “due to what appeared to be human error”.

Mark Fairhurst, the POA’s national chairman, said that while at least two other senior staff were involved in Kebatu’s release, the only person sacked was a union member, a release manager.

Fairhurst told the Guardian: “One of our members has been unfairly suspended because he is not the only person involved in this whole process. Our thoughts are with him and we will fully support him.”

The suspended staff member was responsible for reviewing the paperwork to ensure the correct prisoner was released under the correct conditions. However, it turned out that the manager was checking documents processed by more senior staff.

Taylor said early, inadvertent and even late release of prisoners was a “widespread problem” that needed to be fixed by Prison Service leaders.

“I think this is a symptom of the chaos we’re seeing within the system where the number of inmates being released early is increasing,” he said.

Taylor said “serious errors” had been made at HMP Chelmsford, a “very busy” reception prison, while an inspection at HMP Pentonville and unpublished findings at HMP Birmingham showed “serious anomalies” in sentencing calculations.

“I think it’s very easy to throw someone under the bus in Chelmsford for this, but it’s a systemic problem and the Prison Service needs to take some responsibility for failing to address this problem, which has gotten much, much worse over the last few years,” he added.

Fourteen days before someone is to be released, a center manager in the offender unit checks the paperwork to make sure the right offender has been released under the right conditions.

Two days before an inmate is released, a governor-level administrator checks the paperwork, license, and arrest warrant to make sure the correct person is released.

It is understood that the investigation will focus on whether Kebatu’s status as a detainee awaiting deportation was not included in the documents or whether it was overlooked by someone in charge of the checks.

Allegations of sexual assault against Kebatu led to protests and counter-protests in Epping, where he lived in an asylum, and eventually outside hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.

He was found guilty of five offenses after a three-day trial at Chelmsford and Colchester magistrates’ courts in September and his sentencing hearing heard it was his “firm wish” to be deported.

According to government figures published in July, 262 prisoners were mistakenly released by March 2025: a 128% increase on 115 prisoners in the previous 12 months.

In the House of Commons on Monday, Lammy confirmed that stricter release controls on prisoners would come into force immediately.

A five-page “check list” was issued to prisons asking officers to check prisoners’ details, as well as their “tattoos and scars” on a photograph before they were released.

But the extra checks have been criticized by senior prison staff as they would increase workloads and put more pressure on a system that is already struggling to cope.

The Government must reinvest in prisons after “austerity has destroyed our prisons”, the Prison Governors Association said in a statement. “The checklist will not be enough,” he said in a statement.

Lammy said there had been a 30 per cent cut in prison staff under the Conservatives, with more than half of frontline prison officers now having less than five years’ experience.

He said: “With the system brought to its knees, it’s no surprise that mistakes like this happen. We also have to be honest that the previous government’s approach to this crisis contributed to a level of complexity and pressure that made mistakes more likely.”

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said the incident was a “national disgrace”.