A migrant who was wrongly released from prison has been arrested in north London following a manhunt, the Metropolitan Police said.
Hadush Kebatu was found in the Finsbury Park area at 08:30 GMT on Sunday, two days after HMP Chelmsford mistakenly let him go.
He was arrested on suspicion of being an illegal fugitive.
The Metropolitan Police said Kebatu “will be returned to the custody of the Prison Service”, although Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he would be deported immediately.
Kebatu, who was sentenced last month for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping while living in an asylum hotel, was due to be deported when prison staff mistakenly released him.
Commander James Conway, who oversaw the operation to find Kebatu, said: “This has been a diligent and rapid investigation led by specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police, with support from Essex Police and British Transport Police (BTP).
“Information from the public led officers to Finsbury Park and after a search they located Mr Kebatu.
“I am extremely grateful to the public for their support following our appeal, which helped locate Mr Kebatu.”
Essex Police first learned that Kebatu had been released by mistake at 12.57pm on Friday, but Kebatu had already boarded a train to east London 16 minutes earlier.
Kebatu was also filmed in Chelmsford town center speaking to the public shortly after his release, and police confirmed he approached several people for help.
He was caught on CCTV at a library in the Dalston area on Friday night wearing a gray prison tracksuit and carrying a white bag with images of avocados.
Kebatu’s arrest in July sparked protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, where he had been living since arriving in the UK on a small boat.
In September, Chelmsford Magistrates Court heard that Kebatu attempted to kiss a teenage girl on a bench and made numerous sexually explicit comments.
The next day, he met up with the same girl and tried to kiss her before sexually assaulting her. He also sexually assaulted a woman who had offered to help him write a resume to find a job.
Kebatu said he was 38 years old during a court appearance, but a judge said he had been shown information indicating he was 41 years old.
He denied the charges against him, but last month he was found guilty of five offenses and sentenced to 12 months in prison, including time he had already spent in prison awaiting trial. In total he spent 108 days in prison.
Kebatu was also given a five-year sexual harm prevention order, banning him from approaching or contacting any women, and ordered to sign the Sexual Offenders Register for 10 years.
During his trial, the court heard that Kebatu’s “firm wish” was to be deported. Under the UK Border Act 2007, a deportation order must be made when a foreign national has been convicted of a crime and given a custodial sentence of at least 12 months.
Justice Secretary David Lammy has ordered an independent inquiry into Kebatu’s release, while HM Prison Service has instructed the governors of England and Wales to put in place additional checks before inmates are released on Monday.
A prison officer has been suspended pending an investigation, but a senior prison official told BBC News the release was due to “a series of errors, probably because staff are overworked and understaffed”.
And they continued: “It is not just a penitentiary office that is to blame. It would be unfair.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC the arrest was a “huge relief” and said Kebatu “will now be deported”.
He continued: “The Justice Secretary has ordered an investigation into how on earth a dangerous man who was due to be deported was released onto our streets.
“That work is underway, we will be open and transparent with the public about what went wrong and what we are going to do about it.”
He had previously said the Prison Service was under enormous pressure “but even in that context it does not explain or excuse the release of people onto our streets who have no business being there”.
Conservative former justice secretary Alex Chalk said an investigation was needed to “learn lessons” and suggested the incident was symptomatic of wider problems with the prison system.
He told BBC Breakfast: “The entire annual budget of the Ministry of Justice is spent by the Department for Work and Pensions in two weeks.
“My constant plea is to try to ensure that the prison service gets the resources it needs to ensure we are recruiting and retaining people with the skills and experience to make sure these problems don’t happen.”
Chelmsford Liberal Democrat MP Marie Goldman said Kebatu “must now be deported” and also pushed for a national inquiry.
Earlier, UK reform leader Nigel Farage said the incident showed that “once trusted institutions”, including police and prisons, were “disintegrating before our eyes”.
A report from Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service said 262 prisoners in England and Wales were mistakenly released between April 2024 and March 2025, up from 115 in the previous 12 months.