Migrant who sexually assaulted girl, 14, was given £500 to leave Britain
Sex offender Hadush Kebatu had to be ‘forcibly’ removed from the UK and was given £500 after threatening to disrupt his own removal
A migrant sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison was given a £500 payment for his deportation and had to be ‘forcibly’ removed from the UK, it has emerged.
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Hadush Kebatu was jailed after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, Essex, while living in an asylum hotel, but was mistakenly set free by prison staff on Friday.
He was brought back into custody following a two-day manhunt.
It has now emerged that Kebatu was forcibly deported to Ethiopia and given a £500 payment after threatening to disrupt his own removal.
He was escorted out of the country by a team of five security guards, and due to his threats to disrupt his removal was given a ‘discretionary’ £500 payment which was an ‘operational decision’ made by the team in charge of his removal, not Ministers.
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The £500 payment was an alternative to a slower and more expensive process which would have involved putting him back into detention and onto a new flight, opening up the possibility of a legal challenge to his deportation.
Cancelling his flight would have cost thousands of pounds.
A spokesman for Kebatu's victim's family told LBC earlier they were 'gutted' at being kept in the dark about blunders surrounding his mistaken release and deportation.
He said “the family haven’t heard from anybody in the government and they haven’t received an apology either”.
It “just adds further insult to the way that this case has been dealt with," he added.
Kebatu arrived back in Ethiopia after being deported from the UK on Tuesday, the Home Officer has confirmed, with the migrant told he has no right to return.
It comes after it was revealed that 'human error' by a prison officer led to the release of the Epping sex offender last week.
The migrant, who had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, was jailed after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman, an incident that sparked nationwide protests.
The Ethiopian national was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford on Friday at around 10:25am instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre, triggering a two-day manhunt.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told MPs in the Commons that he was "livid" at the release and ordered an urgent review.