Epping migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu has claimed he told police he was ‘a wanted man’ and tried to hand himself in – but they ignored him.
The illegal settler was freed from HMP Chelmsford in error on Friday just four weeks after being sentenced for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Essex while being housed at an asylum seeker hotel.
He had been awaiting transfer to an immigration detention centre ahead of his planned deportation back to Ethiopia, but bungling prison staff freed him instead.
In a new interview, the 38-year-old has now insisted he took several measures to return to prison – but to no avail.
Kebatu told Sky News: ‘Saturday I get a police. Police I am wanted man, I arrested, I give you my hand (sic).
‘Please, help me, where is police station (sic). He ignored me, he drive (sic).
‘You know me, my image. I am Hadush Kebatu – I am a national of Ethiopia – please, I was the mistake release, please help me (sic).
In a new interview, the 38-year-old (pictured) has now insisted he took several measures to return to prison – but to no avail
Kebatu told Sky News : ‘Saturday I get a police. Police I am wanted man, I arrested, I give you my hand (sic)’
‘Who can responsible for me? Where is Home Office? All of the experts they are ignored me (sic).’
The asylum seeker gestured by bringing his wrists towards the camera as if to suggest he was handing himself in.
A delivery driver, Sim, also testified Kebatu had approached him for assistance.
He said: ‘He’d come over to me and said, I need you to help me, I need you to help me.
‘His English was pretty good to be honest with you. I said, “I’m sorry, what can I do?” He said, “I don’t know where to go, I don’t know where to go”.
‘And I said, “I don’t know, I’m just making a delivery here”.
‘He said, “I’ve been deported, I’ve been deported”.
Kebatu was arrested by Met Police officers in the Finsbury Park area of London at around 8.30am
A CCTV image issued by the Metropolitan Police (pictured) shows Hadush Kebatu in Dalston, London, on Friday night
‘So it wasn’t a case of he’s been released and he’s disappeared and run off – he was standing around a prison, trying to work out where he needed to go for maybe an hour and a half, maybe a little bit longer.’
Kebatu’s release sparked a nationwide manhunt until he was finally caught in Finsbury Park, north London, on Sunday morning.
David Lammy, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, confirmed there would be an independent investigation and yesterday blamed ‘human error’ for the blunder.
But the accidental release of such a high-profile prisoner sparked accusations that something more sinister could have gone on behind bars.
Professor David Wilson, a former prison governor and leading criminologist, claimed Kebatu could have been released by a rogue member of staff to cause a ‘major political embarrassment’.
Speaking to former This Morning editor Martin Frizell on their This Much is True Crime podcast, Prof Wilson said: ‘I don’t see a set of circumstances, knowing the prison service as I do from having worked as a prison governor, how no prison service governor, no member of staff would be aware that you should not be releasing Kebatu but in fact taking him to an immigration and detention centre.
‘I just don’t know any circumstances that would have happened by accident. I’m prepared to be proven wrong. But for me this reeks of something much more serious.’
This is the moment Hadush Kebatu (second from left) was arrested by Met Police officers in Finsbury Park, north London
The convicted sex offender was filmed in Chelmsford speaking to members of the public before boarding a 12.41pm train to Stratford, east London.
CCTV showed Kebatu in the Dalston area of Hackney just before 8pm on Friday. He was also picked up at a library in Dalston Square around two hours earlier, wearing a prison grey tracksuit while clutching a white tote bag with avocados on it.
His movements on Saturday are unclear but the Met Police confirmed he was finally caught in Finsbury Park on Sunday morning, three days after being mistakenly freed. He has now been sent back to Ethiopia.
In a picture of his arrest, Kebatu – who had access to funds – was seen wearing jeans, a puffer jacket and a hood over his head, having managed to change out of his prison tracksuit. Footage showed him being bundled into the back of a police van.
The migrant sex offender was handed £500 in taxpayers’ money to leave Britain.
The debacle has left Labour facing fresh questions about its handling of the migrant crisis.
It comes amid a backlash against efforts to tackle illegal migration after a man who was deported under the ‘one in, one out’ scheme with France reappeared on UK shores having crossed the Channel again in a small boat.
Conservative MP for Epping Forest, Neil Hudson, called Kebatu’s release a ‘catastrophic mistake’ which had ‘deeply distressed, upset and angered’ the whole community, adding that ‘accountability must go right to the top’.
Responding to Kebatu’s claims, the Metropolitan Police Service said: ‘The Met is not aware of any evidence to support the claims that Kebatu approached officers on Saturday morning.
‘The actions of officers who responded to the sighting of him on Sunday morning show how seriously they were taking the manhunt.
‘Kebatu’s actions on the morning of his arrest were more like those of someone trying to avoid officers, not trying to hand himself in.’
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