Sex offender who sparked UK asylum hotel protests released by mistake | Immigration and asylum
The mistaken release from prison of a former asylum seeker who sparked nationwide protests after sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl near an asylum hotel in Epping has sparked a police manhunt.
Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was sentenced to 12 months in prison and made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order for sexual assault in September.
The 41-year-old was supposed to be sent to an immigration detention center for deportation but it turns out he was accidentally released and a police officer in Essex is now urgently trying to find him.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said: “I am appalled that he was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford. We are urgently working with the police to trace him and I have ordered an urgent investigation. Kebatu should be deported for his crimes, not onto our streets.”
A Prison Service officer has since been suspended from duty to evacuate prisoners while the investigation continues.
Kebatu was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault and one attempted sexual assault in July, just days after arriving in the UK on a small boat and taking up residence at the Bell hotel in Epping.
He was also found guilty of one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and one count of non-violent harassment and has been in prison since September 23.
His case triggered protests outside the Bell Hotel, which far-right activists sought to exploit, leading to attacks on police officers and the arrest of 32 people.
A Prison Service spokesman said: “We are working urgently with the police to bring an offender back into custody after he was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford.
“Protecting the public is our top priority and we have launched an investigation into this incident.”
UK Reform leader Nigel Farage said: “The immigrant sex attacker at the Epping hotel… is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is devastated.”
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Remember: they told you the problem was local mothers protesting outside the hotel where this sex attacker was staying.”
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “It is disgraceful that a dangerous convicted pedophile who attacked a 14-year-old girl has been allowed to disappear. “This vile man is an illegal immigrant who should have been deported as soon as he arrived.
“This is the breathtaking incompetence of David Lammy and Shabana Mahmood. They put our children at further risk by releasing this dangerous illegal immigrant onto our streets. They are responsible for everything he can do.”
This should never have happened in the first place. Illegal immigrants must be deported within a week but the Labor government is too weak to do so.
“Whether it was an immigrant breaking into the UK, the collapse of the rape gang investigation, new spying revelations in China, recording illegal entries and now this has been another failure of the Home Office and the home secretary this week.”
Chelmsford’s Liberal Democrat MP Marie Goldman said she had been in contact with both the police and the prison. “The police must do everything they can to ensure that this man is detained so that he can be deported as soon as possible.
“Once the manhunt is over, there must be a full and swift public inquiry into how this happened. This is completely unacceptable and potentially puts my constituents at risk. I await a response from the Prison Service.”
It was revealed that on the afternoon of July 7, 2025, Kebatu tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl on a bench in Epping High Street, then asked her to kiss him and made suggestive comments.
The next afternoon, Kebatu encountered the same girl and repeatedly tried to kiss her before sexually assaulting her. In both encounters, he made other sexual demands from the girl, who told him her age and wore her school uniform.
Shortly before this, Kebatu had sexually assaulted and attempted to kiss an adult woman who had offered to help him prepare a CV.
The woman who saw Kebatu touching the girl informed the police and Kebatu was arrested.
The judge at Chelmsford magistrates’ court said it was a “disgusting and sickening” experience for the girl, who said in a victim statement: “I look over my shoulder every time I go out with my friends.”
Kebatu denied the charges and told the court he was working as a teacher in Ethiopia. His attorney, Molly Dyas, said in her closing statement that she objects to “many of the alleged interactions with this group of children.”
Prosecutor Stuart Cowen, who described Kebatu as a sexual predator, said the explanation he put forward at his trial was “so incredible it lacks any credibility”.
At the time of sentencing, CPS East England deputy chief prosecutor Rebecca Mundy said she understood the incident had become “a source of deep concern for the local community”.
