Epping migrant sex offender last seen in Hackney on Friday, Met says

A migrant sex offender mistakenly released from an Essex prison was last seen in east London on Friday evening, the Metropolitan Police has said.

Hadush Kebatu was spotted shortly before 20:00 in the Dalston area of Hackney, and extra police have been sent to the area as the search for the Ethiopian national enters a third day.

He was also picked up on CCTV at a library in Dalston Square around two hours earlier wearing a prison-issue grey tracksuit and carrying a white bag with pictures of avocados on it.

Kebatu was set free from HMP Chelmsford in error four weeks after being sentenced for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, Essex, while staying at an asylum hotel.

He had been awaiting transfer from prison to an immigration detention centre ahead of his planned deportation, but an error saw him allowed to walk free from the facility.

Prison sources have confirmed to BBC News that staff led him away and towards the train station. Kebatu also reportedly attempted to return to prison but was turned away.

He was filmed in Chelmsford speaking to members of the public shortly after he was released, and police have confirmed he has approached several people seeking assistance.

It is not clear if Kebatu, who speaks limited English, knows about the massive search under way for him.

In a direct public appeal on Saturday evening, Cmd James Conway said police wanted to locate him “in a safe and controlled way”.

He added: “You had already indicated a desire to return to Ethiopia when speaking to immigration staff. The best outcome for you is to make contact directly with us by either calling 999 or reporting yourself to a police station.”

The senior officer said Kebatu had access to funds, which BBC News understands includes cash which had been returned to him with his property when he left HMP Chelmsford, along with the £76 payment prisoners are entitled to on release.

Police have also established that Kebatu has made a number of train journeys across the capital since being released.

Essex Police were first made aware that he had been released in error at 12:57 on Friday, sixteen minutes after he had already boarded a train at Chelmsford, before getting off at Stratford, east London.

Justice Secretary David Lammy has ordered an independent investigation into Kebatu’s release, while HM Prison Service has instructed governors in England and Wales to implement additional checks before inmates are released by Monday.

An officer has been suspended pending investigation but a senior prison staffer told BBC News the release was “down to a series of mistakes probably because staff are overworked and in short supply”.

They continued: “It’s not just one prison office who’s to blame. That would be unfair.”

Kebatu’s arrest in July sparked protests outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, where he had been living since arriving in the UK on a small boat.

In September, Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard Kebatu tried to kiss a teenage girl on a bench and made numerous sexually explicit comments.

The following day, he encountered the same girl and tried to kiss her before sexually assaulting her. He also sexually assaulted a woman who had offered to help him draft a CV to find work.

Kebatu gave his age as 38 during a court appearance, but a judge said he had been seen information indicating he was 41.

He denied the charges against him but was found guilty of five offences last month and sentenced to 12 months in custody, including the time he had already time in jail awaiting his trial. In total, he spent 108 days in prison.

Kebatu was also given a five-year sexual harm prevention order, which banned him from approaching or contacting any female, and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

During his trial, the court heard it was Kebatu’s “firm wish” to be deported. Under the UK Borders Act 2007, a deportation order must be made where a foreign national has been convicted of an offence and has received a custodial sentence of at least 12 months.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the incident showed that the UK’s “once-trusted institutions”, including the police and prisons, were “disintegrating before our eyes”.

“Nobody who arrives by small boat should be free to walk our streets,” he added.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the release was a “level of incompetence that beggars belief”.

A report from His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service said 262 prisoners in England and Wales were released in error between April 2024 and March 2025, up from 115 in the previous 12 months.