It was a blunder that sent shockwaves through Britain’s criminal justice system: Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian asylum seeker convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage girl and a woman in Essex, was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford on Friday, October 24, 2025. The error triggered a frantic two-day manhunt, ignited political uproar, and exposed deep cracks in the country’s prison and immigration systems.
Kebatu’s story began in late June, when he crossed the Channel on a small boat after a journey through Sudan, Libya, Italy, and France, according to BBC News. Upon arrival in the UK, he was housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, a facility used to accommodate migrants. Within just eight days, his presence would spark outrage and fear in the local community.
On July 7, Kebatu made sexually explicit remarks to a 14-year-old girl eating pizza in Epping town centre. The following day, he sexually assaulted both the same girl and a woman he encountered by chance. The woman, recognizing the danger, quickly called 999. Kebatu was arrested soon after, and the incident led to a wave of protests and counter-protests outside the Bell Hotel, as reported by The Guardian and BBC News. The hotel itself became the focus of a legal battle between Epping Forest District Council and the Home Office, with the council seeking to block its use for housing migrants. A High Court hearing on the matter concluded in late October, but a written judgment was still pending.
After a three-day trial at Chelmsford and Colchester Magistrates' Courts, Kebatu was convicted of two sexual assaults, harassment, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and attempted sexual assault. District Judge Christopher Williams, passing sentence in September, declared that Kebatu had “poor regard” for women and posed “a significant risk of reoffending.” Kebatu received a 12-month prison term, was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years, and told he would face deportation. His own defence barrister stated that it was Kebatu’s “firm wish” to be deported as soon as possible.
But what should have been a straightforward removal of a convicted offender quickly descended into chaos. On Friday, October 24, Kebatu was supposed to be transferred to an immigration detention centre to await deportation. Instead, he was released onto the streets by staff at HMP Chelmsford—a mistake that would soon become national news. According to Sky News, Kebatu was seen “confused” as prison staff guided him to the railway station. A delivery driver, Sim, who witnessed the scene, described Kebatu returning to the prison multiple times, only to be turned away and told to head for the train.
Within minutes of his release, Essex Police learned of the error, but Kebatu had already boarded a Greater Anglia train to east London. He was later seen in Chelmsford city centre asking members of the public for help and later captured on CCTV in a library in Dalston Square, north London, still wearing his grey prison tracksuit and carrying a white bag with avocado prints. Without a phone or bank cards, police relied on CCTV and public tips to track his movements, manually sifting through footage as the hours ticked by.
The manhunt ended just before 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 26, when Kebatu was apprehended in Finsbury Park, London. The Metropolitan Police released body-worn footage of the arrest, showing Kebatu kneeling in front of a police car, finally bringing the episode to a close. According to government officials, Kebatu is now set to be deported on Tuesday, October 28, after being questioned by police about his movements during his time at large.
The fallout, however, is far from over. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, ordered an immediate investigation to “establish what went wrong.” Justice Secretary David Lammy announced that an independent inquiry would scrutinize the incident, including the testimony of the delivery driver who interacted with Kebatu on the day of his release. Lammy also promised a statement to Parliament and pointed to a new sentencing bill aimed at strengthening the system.
But the incident has laid bare a wider crisis in Britain’s prisons. Mark Fairhurst, chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), told The Guardian that a single custodial manager had been suspended over the release, but insisted this employee was being scapegoated while more senior staff were also involved. “One of our members has been unjustly suspended because he is not the only one involved in this entire process. Our thoughts are with him and we will fully support him,” Fairhurst said, highlighting a sense of injustice within the ranks.
Charlie Taylor, chief inspector of prisons, described the mistaken release as part of an “endemic problem.” He told The Guardian that errors in prisoner releases—whether early, late, or in error—are now “happening all the time” and symptomatic of chaos in the system. The numbers back him up: government figures show that 262 prisoners were released in error in England and Wales between April 2024 and March 2025, a staggering 128% increase from the previous year’s 115 mistaken releases. HMP Chelmsford has a recent history of such blunders, including the release of a convicted fraudster after the prison received a fake email purporting to be from the courts.
Staff shortages and mounting pressure on the system have been well documented. The prison’s latest inspection report, covering January to February 2024, noted “considerable pressures... because of national capacity issues” and highlighted shortages in both reception and pre-release teams. The maintenance backlog for England and Wales’ prisons is now approaching £2 billion, with a quarter of prisoners locked in facilities that are not fire-safe and hundreds in cells without toilets, according to The Independent.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed did not mince words, blaming the crisis on years of government cuts and calling for the criminal justice system to be “rebuilt from the bottom up.” He pointed out that a third of professional staff had been lost under the previous administration, leaving prisons overcrowded and under-resourced. “This individual had no right to be in the country in the first place, let alone committing the kind of offences that he committed,” Reed said, emphasizing the need for systemic reform.
The impact of Kebatu’s release has been deeply personal for his victims. In a statement read by independent councillor Shane Yerrell, the father of the 14-year-old girl said his daughter had been slowly rebuilding her confidence, but the news of Kebatu’s release had caused “significant stress and anxiety.” The family felt “massively let down and infuriated” by the prison, police, justice system, and government. Chelmsford MP Marie Goldman called the release “mind-blowing” and demanded a “rapid, national inquiry,” insisting that the safety of her constituents should never have been put at risk.
In response, the prison service has announced new mandatory checks on prisoner releases, though senior staff told the BBC that this would only add to their already heavy workload. As the government pledges more funding for probation and new prison places, the Kebatu case stands as a stark warning of what can go wrong when an overstretched system falters.
For now, Kebatu awaits deportation, but the questions raised by his release—about safety, accountability, and the state of British prisons—are unlikely to fade any time soon.
