A former asylum seeker and convicted sex offender who was released from a UK prison in error has been located and is back in custody, British police said.<\/p>\n
The Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was jailed for 12 months in September for sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl and made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order.<\/p>\n
He was arrested in the Finsbury Park area of north London at around 8.30am on Sunday, Scotland Yard said.<\/p>\n
The Metropolitan Police commander James Conway, who oversaw the operation to find Kebatu, said: \u201cThis 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cInformation 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am extremely grateful to the public for their support following our appeal, which assisted in locating Mr Kebatu.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kebatu, who had been released wearing a prison-issue grey tracksuit and holding a plastic bag containing his possessions, made several train journeys across London after being freed on Friday, according to the Met.<\/p>\n
Mr Conway had on Saturday urged anyone \u201cwho sees him, knows where he is or has any information\u201d to call 999 immediately, adding that police believed Kebatu \u201chas access to funds, and critically, in Chelmsford and London, sought assistance from members of the public, and has spoken to station staff\u201d.<\/p>\n
The 41-year-old was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre to be deported but was released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex by mistake, it has emerged.<\/p>\n
A delivery driver described seeing Kebatu return to HMP Chelmsford in a \u201cvery confused\u201d state \u201cfour or five times\u201d, only to be turned away by prison staff and directed to the railway station.<\/p>\n
The driver, named only as Sim, told Sky News that he saw Kebatu come out of the prison saying: \u201cWhere am I going? What am I doing?\u201d and hanging around for about 1\u00bd hours as he tried to find out where he should be going.<\/p>\n
He said Kebatu knew he should be deported but the prison staff were \u201cbasically sending him away\u201d and saying to him: \u201cGo, you\u2019ve been released, you go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The driver said: \u201cHe kept scratching his head and saying: \u2018Where do I go, where do I go?\u2019 The fourth or fifth time [he went into the reception] he was starting to get upset, he was getting stressed. I\u2019m not sticking up for the guy, but in my eyes he was trying to do the right thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew he was getting deported, but he didn\u2019t know where he was going or how he should get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kebatu appeared to have been spotted later in Chelmsford town centre asking for assistance before getting on a train to London.<\/p>\n
Essex police on Saturday confirmed that Kebatu was seen catching a train at Chelmsford railway station at 12.41pm on Friday. Met police confirmed he was seen getting off the train in Stratford in east London at about 1.10pm on Friday.<\/p>\n
As a result, the Met was handed responsibility for the investigation on Saturday morning, the force said.<\/p>\n
A statement from Essex police on Saturday morning said that officers had \u201cworked through the night\u201d to track Kebatu\u2019s movements, including \u201cscouring hours of CCTV footage\u201d.<\/p>\n