Ministers were warned of errors at jail that released sex offender by mistake

Chaotic release procedures at HMP Chelmsford were flagged to the prisons minister last year

Ministers were warned by a watchdog that prisoners were “falling through the cracks” of chaotic release procedures at the jail that mistakenly freed a convicted child sex offender.

An annual report on HMP Chelmsford uncovered “a litany of issues and errors” including “a mix-up of release dates” when letting out a vulnerable prisoner.

The Essex facility is at the centre of an inquiry after Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian national, was accidentally freed despite convictions for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman days after arriving in the UK in a small boat.

The emergence of the report, published by the jail’s independent monitoring board [IMB] in December and sent to the prisons minister, James Timpson, will raise fresh questions about who should be held responsible for the debacle.