Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an Ethiopian convicted of sexual assault, was taken back into custody on Sunday after his mistaken release caused huge embarrassment to the government and the Prison Service.
Here is a timeline of key events since his arrival in the UK:
Arrival
29 June 2025
Kebatu, 41, enters the UK by crossing the Channel in a small boat after paying people smugglers €2,500 (£2,170) for a place on a rubber dinghy. He made the almost 6,000-mile journey from Ethiopia by travelling through Sudan, Libya, Italy and France.
Sexual assault
7-8 July
He is transferred to accommodation for asylum seekers at the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex. On 7 July in Epping town centre he makes sexually explicit comments to a 14-year-old girl who offered him some pizza. He also tries to kiss her. A day later he sexually assaults a woman and also tries to kiss her. He then encounters the girl from the previous day and again tries to kiss her before sexually assaulting her. He is arrested and charged overnight.
Protests
13 July onwards
Two security guards are injured in the first of many anti-immigration demonstrations outside the Bell hotel on 13 July. The protests were exploited by far-right activists who on 17 July attacked police. Over the next five weeks protests outside the hotel led to several assaults on police officers and to 32 arrests.
Court injunction
19 August
Epping Forest district council is granted a temporary high court injunction blocking the accommodation of asylum seekers at the Bell hotel. The injunction is overturned at the court of appeal on 29 August.
Trial
27 August
Kebatu tells his trial that he was a sports teacher in his home country, and denies the offences, saying: “I’m not a wild animal.”
4 September
Kebatu is found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, one count of attempted sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and one count of harassment without violence.
23 September
Kebatu is sentenced to 12 months in prison and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years. He is also told that he faces deportation.
Released in error
24 October
Kebatu was accidentally released from HMP Chelmsford instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre to be deported. He was seen by a delivery driver to return “four or five times” to the prison over an hour and a half in a “very confused” state before he was directed to Chelmsford railway station. Later on Friday he was spotted in Chelmsford in a grey prison tracksuit.
6pm
CCTV captures Kebatu in a library in Dalston, east London, at 6pm.
Police appeal
25 October
Police urge Kebatu to hand himself in. They also appeal to the public for any information on his whereabouts. A senior officer said the police believe Kebatu had access to funds and had sought assistance from members of the public.
Rearrest
26 October, 8.30am
Kebatu is arrested in Finsbury Park, north London after a tipoff from a member of the public. Dog walker Jack Neill-Hall witnessed Kebatu being led away by five police officers. He said: “He wasn’t struggling, he was walking quite calmly, a bit dejectedly, he was staring down, he had his hood up, but it was a calm situation. It was a leisurely stroll out of the park with him with his hands cuffed but he wasn’t trying to get away.”
10.24am
Keir Starmer insists that Kebatu will be deported and orders an independent investigation into how he was released in error.
