David Lammy is expected to face questions in Parliament following the arrest of an asylum seeker sex offender mistakenly released from prison – who is expected to be deported within days.
Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu was jailed for 12 months in September for the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl and was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford on Friday morning instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre.
The migrant, who had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, when he assaulted the girl, travelled from Chelmsford to London and was arrested on Sunday morning in Finsbury Park.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl (Essex Police/PA)
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The father of Kebatu’s teenage victim said he hopes the sex offender will be “deported immediately” – which the Justice Secretary said should happen this coming week.
Mr Lammy told broadcasters on Sunday afternoon that Kebatu needs to be questioned by police before he is deported, adding: “I can assure you that he will be deported as he was expected to be deported.
“I expect that to happen this week.”
He also said he will announce an independent inquiry into what happened in Parliament on Monday, adding: “This man should have been basically in line to be deported and should not have been released into the community, that should not have happened.”
The error was heavily criticised by opposition politicians.
Following Kebatu’s arrest, Chelmsford’s Liberal Democrat MP Marie Goldman called for a “rapid” national inquiry into the blunder that saw him walk free.
“It’s unacceptable that the safety of my constituents, and the people of London, was ever put at risk,” she said.
Hadush Kebatu was arrested in the Finsbury Park area of London on Sunday morning (Lucy North/PA)
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“The prison service had several chances to fix it and failed.
“The Government has serious questions to answer and major work to do to make the system fit for purpose. It certainly isn’t at the moment.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said he remains “shocked that this inept Labour Government let him out in the first place”.
The Conservative MP for Croydon South told GB News: “They should never have allowed his release and I think David Lammy and Shabana Mahmood have questions to answer because they have presided over this system.
And Zia Yusuf, head of policy for Reform UK, told Sky News: “It’s absolutely shocking and how any victim of sexual assault could look at this Labour Government and Jess Phillips in particular, and the whole state apparatus right now, and have any degree of confidence is beyond me.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer confirmed an investigation has been ordered to establish what went wrong, adding: “We must make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
A prison officer has been suspended while a probe takes place.
It is understood Kebatu, who crossed the Channel in a small boat to enter the UK on June 29, left prison with an amount of personal money but was not given a discharge grant to cover subsistence costs.
Hadush Kebatu (Metropolitan Police/PA)
He was convicted of making inappropriate comments to a 14-year-old girl before he tried to kiss her on July 7 – just eight days after he arrived in the country on a small boat.
His trial also heard that a day later, he sexually assaulted a woman by trying to kiss her, putting his hand on her leg and telling her she was pretty.
The woman later called 999 after she spotted him being inappropriate to the same teenage girl who he sexually assaulted while she was wearing her school uniform.
The migrant was found guilty of five offences after a three-day trial at Chelmsford and Colchester Magistrates’ Courts in September and his sentencing hearing heard it was his “firm wish” to be deported.
In court, Kebatu gave his date of birth through a translator as being in December 1986, making him 38 years old, although Essex Police have said their records state his date of birth is in December 1983, making him 41.
Kebatu’s crime led to protesters and counter-protesters taking to the streets in Epping, and eventually outside hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.
