THE sex offender migrant mistakenly released from jail was last spotted donning his prison tracksuit and carrying an avocado and egg bag.
It comes after it was revealed Hadush Kebatu, 41, tried to go back to his prison four or five times as he stood outside for 90 minutes asking for help.
Shocking new CCTV has emerged of Kebatu with his avocado bag casually strolling inside a library in Dalston, East London, at around 6pm – as the police hunt for him grows increasingly desperate.
The wrongly-freed inmate was wearing his prison-issue grey tracksuit top and bottoms in the most recent images of him.
Police said he was seen carrying belongings “in a distinctive white bag with pictures of avocados on it”.
“Additional officers have been deployed to the area to carry out further searches, but we are appealing for the help of local residents to report any sightings as soon as possible,” authorities said.
It comes after blundering prison staff gave Kebatu directions to the nearest train station in Friday’s astonishing gaffe.
Staggering new details of his bungled release emerged yesterday – as it was also revealed his 14-year-old victim is scared of going out in case she bumps into him.
Police said Kebatu had made several train journeys across London travelling from Chelmsford, Essex, to Stratford.
Kebatu was jailed in July after sexually assaulting a girl near The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, where he was staying.
It is understood he was freed from prison on the expectation he would be picked up by immigration officers and deported.
Kebatu was last seen on Friday evening in Dalston, Hackney, according to cops.
On Friday, a delivery driver named only as Sim said he saw Kebatu outside Chelmsford jail on Friday at around 10.10am looking “very confused”.
He said: “He came out of the airlock, and kept saying to the officers there: ‘Where am I going? What am I doing?’
“He was holding a pack of paperwork in his arms, and his bag of bits. He knew he’d be deported.
“He came over to me and said: ‘I need you to help me.’”
Sim claimed officers had no interest in helping Kebatu.
He added: “The fourth or fifth time he went back (to reception) he was starting to get upset, he was getting stressed.
“Nobody was there to pick him up and nobody was telling him where to go or what to do.
“They were basically sending him away and saying to him: ‘Go, you’ve been released, you go.’
“He wasn’t trying to run off, he was standing around for at least an hour and a half.
“Eventually one of the prison officers gave him directions to the train station.”
Ethiopian Kebatu boarded a train at Chelmsford station at 12.42pm heading towards London’s Liverpool Street and got off at Stratford at 1.12pm.
Astonishingly, the prison had not alerted police until 12.57pm.
He had been filmed at 12.07pm asking passers-by for directions in Chelmsford High Street – still dressed in his grey jail tracksuit and carrying a bag of items.
Yesterday, amid the hunt for Kebatu, Met Police Commander James Conway, said: “I am making a direct appeal to Mr Kebatu. We want to locate you in a safe and controlled way.
“You had already indicated a desire to return to Ethiopia when speaking to immigration staff.
“The best outcome for you is to make contact directly with us by either calling 999 or reporting yourself to a police station.”
He said Kebatu had access to funds and had made “a number of train journeys” across London.
Police are preparing to release new footage of him – but confirmed there is a “high level of confidence” the asylum seeker is still in the London area.
Prison and probation services are also introducing new and mandatory procedures for prisoner releases following the extraordinary blunder, Ministry of Defence sources told Sky News.
Duty governors, who secure prison operations daily, will now be required to complete additional checks every evening before a release.
Governors will need to provide assurance that this procedure has been put in place as of Monday.
Meanwhile, a source close to his victim’s family told The Sun on Sunday she was terrified.
They said the family felt “totally let down” by the justice system and had not even been told about his accidental release – hearing about it only through the media.
They added: “The little girl is scared to go out in the town.
“She or her family could have bumped into him wandering down the high street, and no one bothered to tell them.”
Kebatu was remanded in custody after the assault in July before being sentenced to a year’s jail last month.
The court heard he said he “did not know the UK was so strict” when he was interviewed about his crimes.
He tried to kiss the girl and groped her thigh just eight days after arriving across the Channel by small boat.
He approached her to share a pizza with him, inviting her to get married and “make babies”.
It led to protests outside migrant hotels, including a riot at The Bell Hotel where he had been staying.
Sarah White, 40, who helped organise Pink Ladies protests in Epping, said it was “pathetic” he was being moved to a deportation centre so early in his sentence.
TIMELINE
- June 29: Kebatu arrives in the UK on a small boat having travelled through Sudan, Libya, Italy and France. He paid 2,500 euros (£2,155) to cross the Channel in a “rubber dinghy”.
- July 7: The 38-year-old makes sexually explicit comments to a 14-year-old girl who offered him some pizza in Epping, Essex, before trying to kiss her.
- July 8: Kebatu 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.
- The woman sees Kebatu with the girl and calls 999. He is arrested and charged overnight.
- July 10: Kebatu appears at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court for the first time where he denies charges of sexual assault.
- July 13: The first of multiple anti-immigration demonstrations are held outside the Bell Hotel in Epping where Kebatu is housed with other asylum seekers.
- August 19: Epping Forest District Council is granted a temporary High Court injunction blocking the accommodation of asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel.
- August 26: The trial of Kebatu commences at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court
- August 27: 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.”
- August 29: The temporary injunction on the Bell Hotel, operated by Somani Hotels, is overturned at the Court of Appeal, which rules “that the closure of one site means capacity needs to be identified elsewhere in the system”.
- September 4: 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.
- September 23: Kebatu is sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years, as well as being made the subject of a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. He is also told that he faces deportation.
- October 24: Kebatu is accidentally released from HMP Chelmsford instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre to be deported. He is seen catching a London-bound train from Chelmsford station.
- October 25: Essex Police says officers are working with the Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police as Kebatu is believed to be in the London area.
Deputy PM and Justice Secretary David Lammy has ordered an independent investigation into the baffling mistake.
He is understood to be “furious” at Kebatu’s release and is working with police to find the criminal.
A senior justice source said: “He has been released in error – this is the mother of all f**k ups.
“It is down to human error, with the wrong paperwork on it or something.
“David Lammy is aware – and is furious.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage was seething at the news, he slammed: “The Epping hotel migrant sex attacker has been accidentally freed rather than deported.
“He is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is broken.”
A prison officer was taken off duties of discharging lags after news of the accidental release broke.
It is understood that an investigation into the blunder is underway.
Asylum seeker Abel, 21, who feared speaking to the press would impact his claim, said: “[Kebatu] knows a friend of mine, he was asking him for money earlier, I think.”
The Ethiopian migrant added: “He said no, he wouldn’t help, but people are saying that someone did help him. I don’t know who, but this is going to make people hate us more.”
A manager who didn’t want to be named said he noticed the man looking “confused, and very lost” with a plastic bag near the Boswell Hotel a few minutes walk from the prison in the “late morning,” around 11, he estimated.
A station employee added: “Kebatu had a chat with my colleague before I got in at 3.20pm.”
Commenting on two police sprinting past him, he continued: “It’s been nuts, they’ve been in and out all day.”
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We are urgently working with police to return an offender to custody following a release in error at HMP Chelmsford.
“Public protection is our top priority and we have launched an investigation into this incident.”
Kebatu was jailed after he was found guilty of touching and trying to kiss a schoolgirl in Epping on 7 and 8 July.
He had only been in prison for four weeks after being jailed in September 23.
