London police have arrested a convicted asylum seeker who was mistakenly released from prison earlier this week, officials said on Sunday.
Hadush Kebatu, a migrant sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison on Friday, was re-arrested from north London on Sunday after a nearly three-day manhunt, police said.
“This was a thorough and swift investigation led by specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police, supported by Essex Police and British Transport Police,” Commander James Conway, who was overseeing the operation, said in a statement on Sunday.
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The Metropolitan Police said Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was arrested in the Finsbury Park area.
“Information from the public led officers to Finsbury Park and following a search they located Mr Kebata. He was detained by police but will be returned to the custody of the Prison Service,” Conway said in a statement.
Why was Hadush Kebatu released from prison?
Hadush Kebatu, 38, was mistakenly released at Chelmsford Prison in Essex, with authorities claiming they were alerted to the error on Friday afternoon.
The incident led to embarrassment for the government as a manhunt was launched for a sex offender who was reportedly “last seen in the London area”, Essex Police said on Saturday.
He was last seen catching a train in Essex before being apprehended by police.
British media reported that Kebatu was wrongly placed on a list of prisoners to be released instead of being sent to a deportation centre.
Britain’s justice minister expressed his displeasure at the situation, saying he was “angry on behalf of the public that Kebatu is at large,” according to a BBC report.
Kebatu came to national attention after his case sparked a wave of anti-migrant protests in London and other cities in recent months.
In September he was sentenced to 12 months in prison for five offences, including sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in July in Epping, on the outskirts of London, just over a week after he arrived in England by boat.
He was also accused of sexually assaulting another woman.
“Officers worked throughout the night to trace his movements, including combing through hours of CCTV footage, and this work continues today,” a police statement on Saturday said.
The Prison Service has also launched a separate investigation into the incident and a prison officer has been suspended pending the investigation.
Hadus Kebatu’s crimes sparked angry summer protests outside the hotel where he lived in Essex, east of London. The events also helped spark further demonstrations amid rising tensions in Britain over immigration.
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