Mark Fairhurst, the national chairman of the prison officers’ union, said a male worker had been suspended after the accidental release of Hadush Kebatu at HMP Chelmsford on Friday
A prison worker has been “unfairly” suspended after a migrant sex offender was mistakenly released from prison, a union chief said.
Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford on Friday – instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre. Ministers have voiced their fury at the error, which saw Kebatu able to travel to London before being re-arrested on Sunday.
He is set to be deported to his homeland this week after serving his sentence for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. An independent probe has been ordered by Justice Secretary David Lammy.
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Mark Fairhurst, the national chairman of the prison officers’ union told BBC Breakfast: “First and foremost, we need to express how devastated every prison officer is over this mistake.
“We remained silent over the weekend as a union because we needed to support one of our members who we feel has been unfairly dismissed. He can’t carry out his normal tasks.
“Somewhere along the line there has been a mistake, from the paperwork being processed in an offender management unit to the two management checks that were carried out before that release to the discharge process.
“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.”
On Monday Mr Lammy told MPs that Kebatu would be deported back to Ethiopia imminently. But he said: “This has not changed the fact that Mr Kebatu’s victims are rightly outraged about what has happened, and I am livid on their behalf and on behalf of the public.
“This was a mistake which should not have happened. The victims expect better. The public expects better, and this Government expects better from a critical public service which plays a vital role in our first duty to keep the British people safe and from harm.”
Kebatu was released due to “human error”, Mr Lammy said. But he warned there must be accountability for the blunder. He told MPs: “I’ve been clear from the outset that a mistake of this nature is unacceptable.
“We must get to the bottom of what happened and take immediate action to try and prevent similar releases in error to protect the public from harm.”
The Justice Secretary said he had tasked Dame Lynn Owens, a former deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, with investigating how he was mistakenly released. She is expected to speak to Kebatu’s victims to understand the impact of his release on them.
Beefed up checks would imposed on all prisoner releases after an urgent review of processes by the boss of His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).
There will now be more senior oversight on ensuring checks are correctly applied, including a clear checklist for governors to determine that every step has been followed the evening before any release takes place.
Any foreign nationals being deported will now only be released with a duty governor present – and removals from HMP Chelmsford have been suspended this week. Mistaken releases have been rising year on year since 2021 – going from nine per month on average in 2023, to 17 per month in the period spanning January to June 2024, the Justice Secretary told MPs.