Five more prisoners freed in error after sex offender’s release from Essex jail

Five other prisoners have also been released by mistake in the same week a convicted Ethiopian sex offender was allowed to walk free from an Essex jail, says the prison officers’ union. The disclosure of further mistakes highlights the intense pressure on prison staff, according to the Prison Officers’ Association (POA). Last Friday, Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford after being sentenced to 12 months in jail in September for sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl while living in an asylum hotel in Epping. Related: Ministers warned not to scapegoat prison staff over mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu After a two-day manhunt he was tracked down in north London and returned to detention. His mistaken release inflamed public anger, given his case had already caused unrest across England and Wales over the summer, with many demonstrators rallying against asylum accommodation and voicing anti-immigration sentiments. On Tuesday, the POA chair, Mark Fairhurst, told the BBC there had been five other mistaken releases in the past seven days “from five separate prisons”. One of the prisoners is still at large, PA reported. The mistaken releases took place at HMP Pentonville, HMP Durham, HMP the Mount in Hertfordshire and from Reading crown court, according to PA. The Ministry of Justice has acknowledged that more prisoners were mistakenly released this week, but disputed the number. Fairhurst said prison authorities knew the erroneous releases had been a “regular occurrence” for the past year. He blamed inadequate staff training and said the early release schemes, brought in by the government to tackle jail overcrowding last year, had created “a confusing time for everyone”.He defended prison staff and said the union was supporting the officer involved in Kebatu’s case, who he said had been “unfairly” suspended. Fairhurst said an error in the paperwork had led to Kebatu’s release: “Somewhere on that paperwork, it’s been missed that we should have held this person in reception until the immigration service picked him up for deportation.” David Lammy, the justice secretary, told MPs on Monday that he had been freed in “what appears to have been a human error”. Lammy said the government was immediately putting stronger checks in place at prisons across the country. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said: “Releases in error have been increasing for several years and are another symptom of the prison system crisis inherited by this government.” According to government figures published in July, 262 prisoners were released in error in the year to March 2025 – a 128% increase on 115 in the previous 12 months.