Prison staff member suspended after migrant sex offender was mistakenly released from prison

A male member of prison staff has been suspended after a migrant sex offender was mistakenly released from prison, a union chief has said.

Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford on Friday morning instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre.

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."

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