“Inquiries are continuing at pace,” police have said.
Emma Fradgley and Ben Mitchell PA
15:35, 25 Oct 2025
(Image: CPS/PA)
The manhunt for Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was launched after he was accidentally released from HMP Chelmsford. The search is continuing to find the asylum seeker who was accidentally released from where he was serving time for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
Kebatu, 38, who had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, was jailed for 12 months in September. “Inquiries are continuing at pace this morning to locate and arrest a man following a Prison Service releasing error yesterday,” the force said in a statement on Saturday morning.
(Image: Essex Police/PA)Here is a timeline of key events since his arrival in the UK:
June 29: Kebatu arrives in the UK on a small boat having travelled through Sudan, Libya, Italy and France. He paid 2,500 euros (£2,155) to cross the Channel in a “rubber dinghy”.
July 7: The 38-year-old makes sexually explicit comments to a 14-year-old girl who offered him some pizza in Epping, Essex, before trying to kiss her.
July 8: Kebatu sexually assaults a woman and also tries to kiss her. He then encounters the girl from the previous day and again tries to kiss her before sexually assaulting her.
The woman sees Kebatu with the girl and calls 999. He is arrested and charged overnight.
July 10: Kebatu appears at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court for the first time where he denies charges of sexual assault.
July 13: The first of multiple anti-immigration demonstrations are held outside the Bell Hotel in Epping where Kebatu is housed with other asylum seekers.
August 19: Epping Forest District Council is granted a temporary High Court injunction blocking the accommodation of asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel.
August 26: The trial of Kebatu commences at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court
August 27: Kebatu tells his trial that he was a sports teacher in his home country, and denies the offences, saying: “I’m not a wild animal.”
August 29: The temporary injunction on the Bell Hotel, operated by Somani Hotels, is overturned at the Court of Appeal, which rules “that the closure of one site means capacity needs to be identified elsewhere in the system”.
September 4: Kebatu is found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, one count of attempted sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, and one count of harassment without violence.
September 23: Kebatu is sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years, as well as being made the subject of a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. He is also told that he faces deportation.
October 24: Kebatu is accidentally released from HMP Chelmsford instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre to be deported.
He was seen by a delivery driver to return “four or five times” to the prison over an hour and a half in a “very confused” state before he was directed to Chelmsford railway station.
He is also seen asking for assistance in the town before catching a London-bound train.
October 25: Essex Police says officers are working with the Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police as Kebatu is believed to be in the London area.
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