The father of the 14-year-old schoolgirl sexually assaulted by Hadush Kebatu says his family feels “massively let down and infuriated” by the migrant’s accidental release from prison.

Kebatu, who was found guilty in September of sexually assaulting the girl and a woman in Epping, Essex, was arrested on Sunday morning in London’s Finsbury Park after just under 48 hours at large.

In a statement read by Epping Forest councillor Shane Yerrell on Sunday evening, the schoolgirl’s father said Kebatu being released from HMP Chelmsford due to a system failure was “unbelievably irresponsible”.

“Myself and my family feel massively let down and infuriated by HMP Chelmsford, the police, the justice system and our Labour government. They have all failed,” the statement read.

“Not just us as a family, but they have failed everyone in the country.”

Earlier on Sunday, Justice Secretary David Lammy said an exclusive Sky News interview will be used as part of an independent inquiry into the mistaken release.

Speaking to Sky’s national correspondent Tom Parmenter, a delivery driver who spoke to Kebatu at HMP Chelmsford described him as being “confused” as he was being guided to the railway station by prison staff. The migrant is said to have returned to the prison reception four or five times before leaving the area on a train.

Mr Lammy also said he would make a statement about the incident in parliament on Monday.

He said: “We need to get to the bottom of how this happened and why it happened, and, of course, on behalf of the public, I want to be reassured that it won’t continue to happen and that the systems that we put in place, the checks and balances, are there to reassure the public.”

The schoolgirl’s father said in the statement that he went to the Chelmsford prison to “seek some answers” after learning of Kebatu’s accidental release but he was allegedly “greeted with hostility and complete disregard for anything I said or asked”.

The statement said: “I really hope that nobody else’s child has to experience what my daughter has.

“I hope he will be deported immediately, as the longer he was roaming the streets, the more threat he posed to women and children of this country.

“I had to find out from a reporter that my daughter’s attacker was accidentally released in the day, then be sent images and videos of him walking around throughout the day before the police even alerted her mother.”

Police are believed to be questioning Kebatu “to get to the bottom of what’s happened” and to learn what his movements were between his accidental release from prison on Friday and his arrest.

Mr Lammy called his accidental release from prison on Friday “totally unacceptable” and said Kebatu will be deported back to Ethiopia this coming week.

Sky News understands the deportation will take place on Tuesday.

Earlier on Sunday, Sir Keir Starmer said police officers had worked “quickly and diligently to bring him back into custody” and that the government had “ordered an investigation to establish what went wrong”.

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Government has ‘serious questions’ to answer

Opposition parties have said that the government has “serious questions” to answer over the incident.

Chelmsford’s Liberal Democrat MP Marie Goldman called for a “rapid” national inquiry, adding: “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.”

Speaking on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s head of policy, said that while he was “relieved” Kebatu had been re-arrested, the case was a sign of Britain’s “descent into a Monty Python sketch”.

Referring to the earlier Sky News interview with the witness, he said: “This is a man who the eyewitnesses said was actively trying to go back into prison after being accidentally let go.”

He said the case was “absolutely shocking” and questioned how victims of sexual assault could have confidence in the government.

It is understood Kebatu, who crossed the Channel in a small boat to enter the UK on 29 June, left prison with an amount of personal money but was not given a discharge grant to cover subsistence costs.

He was convicted 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 on 4 September.

A former Bank of England governor has criticised potential proposals for a mansion tax, saying the government lacks a “coherent strategy” on the economy.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is reportedly considering a mansion tax in next month’s budget to help fill the multi-billion pound black hole in the public finances.

But Lord King told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that he could not identify an economic plan from the government and that adding another wealth tax would not solve the problem with the country’s finances.

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“There’s plenty of scope for reforming the tax system,” he said.

“It hasn’t, we haven’t, seen a chancellor take a strategic look at the tax system for almost 40 years.

“It’s been one kind of tinkering after another and that’s created a mess – an excessively complex one.”

Last week, Ms Reeves admitted in an interview with Sky News that she was looking at both tax rises and spending cuts in the budget.

The Mail On Sunday reported that one proposal being considered was a mansion tax which would hit owners of properties with an annual charge of 1% of the amount by which its value exceeds £2m – meaning a £10,000-a-year levy for homes worth £3m.

But Lord King said: “Property taxes are an interaction between stamp duty, council tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax.

“You don’t solve that problem by just adding another wealth tax to it.”

The former Bank of England governor said the chancellor needed to look at “all aspects” of tax, not just on property, “to come up with a coherent view to what it should look like”.

He said this currently did not happen and that instead ministers tried to match a figure produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the fiscal and economic forecaster, just before the budget.

“What happens is the OBR produces just before the budget, a number, one number, and then they look round for ideas – almost written on the back of a fag packet – about how you can raise an extra few billion or a few billion there,” Lord King said.

“That is not a coherent tax strategy. And you could do a great deal by thinking it through first.”

Economists have indicated Ms Reeves will need to find between £20bn and £50bn to meet her goal of balancing day-to-day spending with tax receipts in 2029/30, and at least maintaining her current buffer of around £10bn against that target.

The chancellor has hinted this will be more difficult to achieve due to the OBR downgrading its assessment of productivity growth.

Another measure the chancellor is reportedly considering to accumulate extra revenue is a 2p hike to income tax – as reported by The Sun On Sunday.

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The move would breach Labour’s manifesto pledge not to increase national insurance, VAT and income tax.

Asked whether Labour was unwise to stick with those general election promises on tax, Lord King said: “Very unwise.

“I think the previous government was irresponsible to cut national insurance contributions when that was only remotely feasible, given unrealistic projections for public spending.

“And I think the Opposition didn’t need to make a commitment not to reverse that.

“And honestly, I think that would be much better now just to say to people, ‘this is where we are’.

“Be completely straight with people say, ‘yeah, we made that pledge in the heat of an electoral battle, it was a mistake, we regret it, and we’re going to unwind that’.”

In her Sky News interview, Ms Reeves said multiple challenges meant there was a fresh need to balance the books.

She added: “Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well, but the numbers will always add up with me as chancellor because we saw just three years ago what happens when a government, where the Conservatives, lost control of the public finances: inflation and interest rates went through the roof.”

The Treasury has been approached for comment.

Shoulders will have begun to fall in Number 10 today after the news broke that the convicted sex offender somehow released in error has been arrested and is back in custody.

But whether Hadush Kebatu is behind bars or not, and whether he is deported or not, the political damage has been done.

According to government figures from July, 262 prisoners were released in error in England and Wales between March 2024 and March 2025, up from 115 the previous year, a 128% increase.

And there are several previous incidences of dangerous sex attackers being mistakenly released from prison and then going on to attack other women while still at large – just google William Fernandez or Joseph McCann.

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There is no suggestion he’s committed major offences while he was freed, but the judge in his trial said there was a risk of him reoffending – making it all the more concerning he was released accidentally.

Despite being a shocking and almost unbelievable turn of events – if you pitched this storyline you’d be laughed out the room for it being so far-fetched – these kinds of mistakes are far too common and speak to a wider problem in the creaking criminal justice system.

Senior government sources admit to me that not only was this saga incredibly embarrassing for government, but it also feeds a narrative that Britain isn’t working and the state cannot fulfil basic functions.

Read more:
Kebatu is second person freed by mistake from HMP Chelmsford
Wrongly-released migrant ‘tried to return to prison 4 or 5 times’

And it is this impression of state incompetency and political failure that reflects so poorly on Starmer’s premiership when he promised an end to Tory chaos and to bolster and improve public services… prison system included.

With 14 years in power, there is no denying the state of the prison system in the UK is the responsibility of the Conservative Party too.

But the public want to see action now, and it is the Labour Party that is in government.

And with small boats crossings at record levels this year already, a migrant sent to France on the one-in-one-out scheme coming back on a small boat for the second time, and a convicted sex offender on the loose for two days, a colossal reputational repair job is desperately needed.

It took 48 hours to find Kebatu. It will take far longer to convince the public this government has a grip on public services and can be trusted to keep us all safe.