‘Spectacular failure’: Wes Streeting admits ‘embarrassment’ over sex offender release blunder

The Ethiopian national was jailed for 12 months in September for the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl and was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford on Friday morning instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre.

Kebatu was apprehended in the Finsbury Park area of north London at around 8.30am on Sunday following a manhunt.

Ahead of the arrest, the Health Secretary told Lewis Goodall he "can't even begin to put into words how angry" he felt following this "grotesque and spectacular failure".

"Frankly, the fact he's out on our streets at all is an absolutely disgraceful state of affairs."

He told Goodall: "I'm just shocked that he was let out in this way in the first place.

"I simply do not understand how something like this can happen and we need to get to the bottom of how, why, what we learn from it.

"Also, there does need to be accountability when such a kind of grotesque and spectacular failure takeas place."

The Metropolitan Police said information from the public led to Kebatu's arrest.

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'Embarrassed'

The Health Secretary admitted he felt embarassed about the situation.

"I feel embarrassed. I can't even begin to put into words how angry I feel and no doubt speak for the Home Secretary and the Justice Secretary and the Prime Minister.

"I saw the news and just thought, how on earth could this have happened?

"He was meant to be transferred to authorities for deportation, so I do not understand how he was let back out on the streets.

"If the reports are to be believed, hung around for quite a while outside the prison, apparently confused himself as to what was going on."

Mr Streeting also said the incident was a "reflection" of the fact the Prison Service is "stretched".

"I think we do have to take that seriously.

"We're talking about the management of serious offenders and that's why, just even taking into account those pressures, I just don't understand how someone like this could have been.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has now confirmed Kebatu will be deported.

"Officers have worked quickly and diligently to bring him back into custody," the Prime Minister added.

"We have ordered an investigation to establish what went wrong. We must make sure this doesn't happen again."

Chelmsford's Liberal Democrat MP Marie Goldman called for a "rapid" national inquiry into the blunder.

"It's unacceptable that the safety of my constituents, and the people of London, was ever put at risk," she said.

"The prison service had several chances to fix it and failed.

"The Government has serious questions to answer and major work to do to make the system fit for purpose. It certainly isn't at the moment.

"A rapid, national inquiry must happen to get to the bottom of this."

David Lammy has said he has already ordered the "immediate strengthening of release checks and a full investigation into what went wrong."