An undated handout image shows Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an Ethiopian asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a teenage girl and another woman in Britain, and who according to the government has been accidentally released from jail. Essex Police/Handout via REUTERS
LONDON (Reuters) -British police said on Sunday they had arrested Hadush Kebatu, a migrant sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison, in north London after a nearly three-day manhunt.
Kebatu was in September sentenced to a 12-month term for sexual assaults of a teenage girl and a woman, and was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre to be deported when he was freed by mistake on Friday.
"This has been a diligent and fast-paced investigation led by specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police, supported by Essex Police and the British Transport Police," Commander James Conway, who oversaw the operation, said in a statement on Sunday.
"Information from the public led officers to Finsbury Park and following a search, they located Mr Kebatu. He was detained by police, but will be returned to the custody of the Prison Service."
The 38-year-old Ethiopian's offences sparked angry summer-long protests outside the hotel where he was living in Essex, east of London, events which helped set off other demonstrations amid rising tensions in Britain over immigration.
(Reporting by Suban Abdulla; Editing by David Holmes)
