Cancelling Hadush Kebatu’s flight out of the country would have cost thousands of pounds, the minister said.<\/p>\n
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Policing Minister Sarah Jones, left, said paying \u00a3500 pounds to deport Hadush Kebatu was the right decision.<\/p>\n
Picture:
\nAlamy<\/p>\n
It is \u201cgalling\u201d that a migrant sex offender was paid \u00a3500 to leave Britain – but it was the right decision, Policing Minister Sarah Jones has told LBC.\n<\/p>\n
Hadush Kebatu was jailed after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, Essex, while living in an asylum hotel, but was mistakenly set free by prison staff on Friday.<\/p>\n
He was brought back into custody following a two-day manhunt before being escorted out of the country by a team of five security guards and given a \u2018discretionary\u2019 \u00a3500 payment due to his threats to disrupt his removal. <\/p>\n
News of the payment has raised eyebrows, but Ms Jones said the “operational decision”, which was made by the team in charge of his removal, was the right one. <\/p>\n
She told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast<\/a>: \u201cThe operation took the decision in that moment to offer him money, which I know is quite galling and sticks in the throat a bit with all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n But she said that in this case it was the \u201cright decision to make\u201d as it got him \u201cout of the country\u201d in a measure that saved thousands of pounds.<\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>Father of sex assault migrant victim \u2018gutted\u2019 at lack of apology and government silence over release blunder<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>Migrant who sexually assaulted girl, 14, was given \u00a3500 to leave Britain<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Hadush Kebatu was accidentally released from HMP Chelmsford.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n