{"id":529077,"date":"2025-10-26T11:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T11:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/529077\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T11:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T11:56:13","slug":"london-police-nab-sex-offender-asylum-seeker-who-was-mistakenly-released-from-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/529077\/","title":{"rendered":"London police nab sex offender, asylum-seeker who was mistakenly released from prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 London police said Sunday they arrested a\u00a0convicted sex offender and asylum-seeker\u00a0who was mistakenly released from prison in a blunder that has embarrassed the government.<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Police said Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was arrested in the Finsbury Park area in north London. Police said he will be returned to the custody of the Prison Service.<\/p>\n

\"MugshotEthiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was arrested in London after mistakenly being released from prison. Essex Police\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"DemonstratorsDemonstrators take part in a \u2018The Pink Ladies\u2019 anti-immigration protest in Westminster, central London on October 1. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Before he was released in error, Kebatu had already been in national news because his arrest earlier this year over the sexual assault of a teenage girl triggered a\u00a0wave of angry anti-migrant protests\u00a0in London <\/a>and other cities.<\/p>\n

Authorities said they were alerted Friday afternoon that Kebatu, 38, was released by mistake at a prison in Chelmsford, Essex, and was seen catching a London-bound train there. British media reported that he was wrongly categorized as a prisoner due to be released, instead of being sent to an immigration detention center.<\/p>\n

The migrant was sentenced in September to 12 months in prison for five offenses, including the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl in July in Epping, on the outskirts of London, just over a week after he had arrived in England by boat.<\/p>\n

Thousands of people protested outside the\u00a0Bell Hotel in Epping, northeast of London, where he was staying along with other newly arrived migrants. Multiple protests targeting other hotels housing migrants <\/a>followed in other British cities and towns, with some demonstrations attended by far-right activists and spilling into disorder.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The group Stand Up to Racism also rallied in counterprotests.<\/p>\n

The Prison Service launched an investigation, and a prison officer has been removed from discharging duties while that takes place.<\/p>\n

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Government officials have described the mistake as an \u201cegregious failure,\u201d and a Ministry of Justice has opened an investigation to find out what went wrong and who was accountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis man was behind bars because of serious sex offenses,\u201d Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Sky News Sunday. \u201cHe is not meant to be in this country. In fact, what was supposed to be happening is he was meant to be transferred for deportation. So the idea that he\u2019s loose on our streets is incredibly serious. It is a serious failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue of unauthorized migration \u2014 especially the tens of thousands of migrants crossing the English Channel in overloaded boats to reach the U.K. \u2014 has risen to the top of the political agenda in Britain. The\u00a0government\u2019s policy of using hotels to house migrants\u00a0who are awaiting a decision on their asylum status has also come under heavy criticism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 London police said Sunday they arrested a\u00a0convicted sex offender and asylum-seeker\u00a0who was mistakenly released from prison…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,5805,14618,171507,16,15,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-529077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-migrants","13":"tag-prisons","14":"tag-sexual-assaults","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115440346431134526","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}