Father of Epping sex attack victim says family 'let down relentlessly' after migrant freed by mistake
Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly freed from HMP Chelmsford last month
The father of the teenage girl sexually assaulted by an asylum seeker in Essex says his family has been "let down relentlessly" by the government's failures.
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Hadush Kebatu, 41, was jailed for sexually assaulting the 14-year-old girl but was released by mistake instead of being transferred to an immigration removal centre.
After a 48-hour manhunt, Kebatu was finally caught and then deported with a £500 payout after he threatened to mount a legal challenge against his removal.
Read more: Manhunt after second sex offending migrant accidentally released from prison
The father, who spoke to ITV news anonymously to protect his daughter's identity, said the government "keep breaking us as a family".
"We haven’t had a single apology from the government. We haven’t had a single apology or any recognition whatsoever," he said.
"It's just been failure after failure after failure. And, you know, I'm disappointed. More than anything. I'm disgusted."
He added that his family: "is now try and pick up the pieces that the government will keep breaking off my daughter.”
In a statement released over a week after Kebatu's escape, his schoolgirl victim said it felt like she was put in danger "all over again" while he was on the run.
She added that the £500 payment he had received "like he got paid for what he had done to me."
In the statement to ITV News, which was read by Epping Forest district councillor Shane Yerrell, the girl said: "I think it’s disgusting how me and my family have been treated in all of this and it’s not fair that he was released by accident.
"And I feel like I was put in danger all over again and all of the feelings from the day it happened came back.
"We found out he was being deported, and I was being told by everybody that he got paid £500.
"When I got home I just cried because I felt like he got paid for what he had done to me."
The girl added: "I didn't want to be in Epping because I was so scared I was going to see him and he would recognise me."
Kebatu had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, when he sexually assaulted the girl and a woman, sparking a wave of protests outside the accommodation used to house asylum seekers.
The girl's father said he "doesn't condone" the protests, adding: "I don’t want any fighting, I don’t want any violence. I’m not racist, I’m not prejudiced. I never have been and I never will be.
But he believed it was "disgusting" that there had been "no justice served" seventeen weeks on from Kebatu's original arrest.
“There’s no justice system. It’s such a shame that we’ve been treated the way we have and we’ve had no help, no nothing," he said.
His trial heard he had made inappropriate comments to a 14-year-old girl before trying to kiss her on July 7, just eight days after his arrival in the UK.
The following day, Kebatu sexually assaulted a woman by attempting to kiss her, placing his hand on her leg, and telling her she was "pretty."
He denied the charges against him but was found guilty of five offences and sentenced in September to 12 months in custody, including the time he had already spent in jail awaiting his trial.
Kebatu was then wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford last month instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre, triggering a two-day manhunt.
The Ethiopian national was forcibly removed to his home country on October 28 with a team of five escorts on the flight, and arrived on Wednesday morning with no right to return to Britain, the Home Office said.