London’s Metropolitan Police arrested migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu after the Ethiopian national was mistakenly released onto the streets on Friday.
A two-day manhunt for Kebatu concluded on Sunday as the Met arrested the illegal boat migrant in the Finsbury Park area of London, the BBC reported.
The Ethiopian migrant was found guilty of five offences, including sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl outside of an asylum seeker hotel in Epping. In September, he was sentenced to 12 months in prison and a five-year sexual harm prevention order, barring him from approaching or contacting any female.
The child molesting migrant was reportedly set to be moved to an immigration detention centre in preparation to be removed from the country. However, he was apparently freed onto the streets by mistake from HMP Chelmsford on Friday, sparking a multiple-day manhunt.
Following his arrest on Sunday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said that Justice Secretary David Lammy “has ordered an investigation into how on earth it was that a dangerous man who was due for deportation was instead released onto our streets”.
Streeting vowed that the government will be “open and transparent” about the failings, and added: “This never should have happened”.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said that Kebatu will be deported “as quickly as possible”.
Commander James Conway, who oversaw the Met operation to find Kebatu, said: “This has been a diligent and fast paced investigation led by specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police, supported by Essex Police and the British Transport Police.
“Information from the public led officers to Finsbury Park and following a search, they located Mr Kebatu. He was detained by police, but will be returned to the custody of the Prison Service.
“I am extremely grateful to the public for their support following our appeal, which assisted in locating Mr Kebatu.”
The sexual assault against the 14-year-old girl in Epping by Kebatu sparked nationwide protests against the government’s scheme of placing supposed asylum seekers — many of whom are young men who broke into the country illegally over the English Channel — in hotels in communities across England.
The protest movement, which saw women and mothers come to the fore of the conversation, focused on the danger posed to children by having unvetted foreign males being placed by the state in their midst.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said that Kebatu’s mistaken release was further evidence that “Britain is broken”. Mr Farage and his party have vowed to shut down so-called migrant hotels and to deport all illegal migrants from Britain.
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