23/09/2025
A man who was arrested within minutes of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Epping has today been jailed.
Hadush Kebatu was jailed for 12 months – the maximum which can be given at a Magistrates’ Court – and was also made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order.
Kebatu was found guilty of two sexual assaults, harassing the girl, inciting her to engage in sexual activity and an attempted sexual assault.
He committed the crimes eight days after he arrived in the UK by small boat, having travelled through Sudan, Libya, Italy and France.
Under the UK Borders Act 2007, a deportation order must be made when a foreign national has been convicted of an offence and received a custodial sentence of at least 12 months.
He will also be on the UK sex offenders’ register for ten years, which means he will be subject to strict monitoring for the whole of that time.
Kebatu was arrested after we received reports of a man behaving inappropriately towards a teenage girl in High Road at 5.20pm on Tuesday 8 July.
As a result of the work of officers in the hours after the arrest, separate offences which took place on Monday 7 July were then reported for the first time and an investigation was launched.
Overnight, the 41-year-old, with an address in High Road, Epping, was charged.
He denied all offences during preliminary hearings and a three-day trial was held in Chelmsford and Colchester Magistrates’ Courts which finished on Thursday 4 September.
The court heard that on 7 July Kebatu tried to kiss the teenage girl on a bench whilst also asking her to kiss him. He also made numerous sexually explicit comments.
The following afternoon, on 8 July, Kebatu encountered the same girl and again tried to kiss her before sexually assaulting her. He also made further sexually explicit comments despite being told the girl’s age and the fact that she was wearing her school uniform.
Shortly before this interaction, Kebatu had sexually assaulted and attempted to kiss an adult woman who had offered to help him create a CV to find work.
When she then saw Kebatu also interacting inappropriately with the teenage girl, she called 999 and he was quickly arrested.
District Judge Christopher Williams found Kebatu 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
Kebatu was sentenced today (23 September) at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court to 12 months in prison and was made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order, which bans him for approaching or contacting any female.
He will remain on the sex offenders’ register for ten years.
Hadush Kebatu was jailed after sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while living in an asylum hotel inEpping, Essex, but was mistakenly freed by prison staff on Friday. He was re-arrested after two days.
The Ethiopian was put on a flight on Tuesday night and landed the following morning, the Home Office said.
The payment was made by the removal team as an alternative to a slower and more expensive process, Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said.
He said Kebatu was “forcibly deported” and accompanied by five escorts on the flight.