The mistaken release of a sex offender from prison has caused his teenage victim “so much stress and anxiety”, her father has said, as he condemned the mistake as “incredibly irresponsible”.
Hadush Kebatu, jailed for a year in September for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, was wrongly released from HMP Chelmsford instead of an immigration detention center on Friday morning.
The migrant, who was staying at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, at the time of the attack, traveled from Chelmsford to London before he was arrested in Finsbury Park on Sunday morning.
In a statement read by Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) independent councilor Shane Yerrell, the victim’s father said his traumatized daughter had gradually regained her confidence following the events.
“Friday’s news has caused her so much stress and anxiety,” he said.
“She was afraid that she would see him on the highway again and that he would recognize her. I am really worried about my daughter’s mental health and well-being because of this attack.”
“This man poses a real threat to young women and children, and to be wrongfully released and out on the streets just four months after two sexual assaults, just five weeks after being sentenced, all because of a system failure on Friday, is incredibly irresponsible.”
Hadush Kebatu, a teenage victim, is said to be stressed and worried about the false release (Metropolitan Police / PA) (Metropolitan Police)
He said the whole family felt “very disappointed and angry” at the prison, the police, the justice system and the government.
“They all failed, not just us as a family, but everyone in the country,” the father said.
“I had to find out from a journalist that my daughter’s attacker was accidentally released that day, then I was sent images and videos of him walking around all day before the police even alerted her mother.
“Then later that day when I visited HMP Chelmsford to seek answers, I was greeted with hostility and completely ignored anything I said or asked, complete disrespect for me and my family.
The father, who expressed hope that Kebatu would be “immediately deported,” also said he feared the sex offender would hurt someone else.
“If anything had happened to another child or woman, it would have happened to HMP Chelmsford, as well as the police, the justice system and our Labor Government,” he said.
The Ministry of Justice has been contacted for comment.
The Bell Hotel, where Kebatu lived until his conviction, became the focus of demonstrations and counter-protests over the summer following his criminal charges, which eventually led to demonstrations outside hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.
About 60 protesters holding the union and St. George flags, gathered outside the Essex Hotel on Sunday evening.
The Bell Hotel became a hotbed of demonstrations and counter-protests over the summer (Lucy North/PA) (PA)
The hotel is at the center of an ongoing High Court battle between EFDC and Somani Hotels, which owns the bell.
The council is currently waiting to find out whether its bid for a High Court order preventing asylum seekers from being housed there has succeeded.
EFDC launched legal proceedings, claiming that housing asylum seekers there breached planning rules, a claim the company disputes.
The Home Office intervened and told the court that the council’s proposal was “wrong”.
The bell has been used to house single adult men since April, and Home Office lawyers told the court it currently houses around 95 people.
Initially, asylum seekers were accommodated from 2020. May until 2021 March, and single adult men – from 2022. October to 2024 in April and the council took no enforcement action.
EFDC was granted an interim injunction in mid-August, but it was overturned by the Court of Appeal later that month.