Ex-prison governor and Reform adviser left baffled by blunders that released Epping sex attacker
Vanessa Frake slammed the Prisons Service for their role in releasing Kebatu rather than deporting him
The former governor of HMP Wormwood Scrubs has been left baffled after a migrant jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl was mistakenly released from prison.
Listen to this article
Speaking after Hadush Kebatu was freed just one month into his year-long sentence, Vanessa Frake, who is also Reform UK's prisons tsar, told LBC's Rachel Johnson: "Words fail me as to how this has actually happened."
Kebatu was sentenced last month at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court after being found guilty of five charges, including sexually assaulting a woman and a teenage girl in Epping.
Ms Frake told LBC: "It is a failure of procedural practise within the Prison Service without a doubt and I think that just goes to show the disarray that our Prison Service is in.
"It's highly embarrassing for the Prison Service. It's very unfair to the victims of this individual and the people of Essex."
A manhunt is now underway to recapture Kebatu - after he boarded a London-bound train at Chelmsford railway station at 12.41pm on Friday.
When asked by Rachel about the danger Kebatu poses to the public, Ms Frake concluded: "In the judges summing up he said he was a very manipulative individual and was a danger to young girls on the streets of the UK."
Kebatu, who was being held at HMP Chelmsford, was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre to be deported, but was mistakenly freed instead, the Department of Justice said on Friday.
Videos have emerged online showing a man, who appears to be the sex offender, wearing a grey prison tracksuit and asking people for directions.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the mistaken release of the convicted sex offender is “totally unacceptable”
David Lammy said he was “livid on behalf of the public” following the blunder.
The Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister told broadcasters: “I’m livid. I’m livid on behalf of the public that this individual who committed a sexual assault on a young minor and a woman is at large tonight.”
He added: “I spoke to the Home Secretary today. I have launched an investigation into what has happened in the prison service to allow this to come about.
“But the important thing is that we protect the public. The important thing is that the police are able to do their work and find this individual.
“And the important thing is, if anyone is watching and knows where he is, that they call 999, and indeed that he gives himself up and returns to the custody that he should be in.”