Helena Wilkinson
News correspondent

The fact that Hadush Kebatu was found after information was received from the public shows the crucial role members of the public can play in cases like this.

We saw it previously in the case of escaped prisoner Daniel Khalife - it was also because of tip-offs from the public that police managed to track him down.

It also show just how critical police public appeals are.

Image source, PA Media

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu will be deported "as quickly as possible".

Her words come after Prime Minister Starmer and Justice Secretary Lammy earlier confirmed Kebatu will be deported.

Following the asylum seeker's rearrest, she also thanks the police forces for their "tireless work" in locating the sex offender.

Helena Wilkinson
News correspondent

Kebatu was jailed for a year last month at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman.

So why was he due to be transferred to an immigration detention centre, to then be deported after a month in prison?

He'll have had time deducted from his sentence for time he had already spent in custody.

The District Judge also told Kebatu at his sentencing hearing that he would be "subject to an early release regime".

The earliest date of his release will have then been calculated and Kebatu told.

Here are the first images from the scene in London's Finsbury Park area as police found and rearrested Hadush Kebatu this morning.

Image source, BBC/Handout

Image source, BBC/Handout

Image source, PA Media

Justice Secretary David Lammy has ordered a full investigation into Hadush Kebatu's erroneous release.

Lammy, also the UK's deputy prime minister, has also instructed an "immediate strengthening" of release checks in prisons.

Echoing the words of the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, he vows that the asylum seeker "will be deported".

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

The Kebatu mistake is not the only one made recently at Chelmsford jail.

A convicted fraudster Junead Ahmed was freed while on remand after the prison was sent a fake email purporting to be from the Royal Courts of Justice authorising his release. He was then freed.

This raises more questions about process and checks at the prison.

• For context: Ahmed was rearrested two days after his release and later convicted alongside five others for their parts in a "conspiracy to release three people from lawful detention, external in Chelmsford Prison"

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

We've just heard from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on this morning's arrest.

"Hadush Kebatu has been arrested and will be deported," he writes on social media.

"Officers have worked quickly and diligently to bring him back into custody.

"We have ordered an investigation to establish what went wrong. We must make sure this doesn't happen again."

29 June: Hadush Kebatu, from Ethiopia, arrives in the UK on a small boat having travelled through Sudan, Libya, Italy and France.

7 July: Kebatu makes sexually explicit remarks to a 14-year-old who was eating a pizza with her friend in Epping town centre.

8 July: He sexually assaults a woman, trying to kiss her. He does the same to the girl he sexually assaulted the day before, who he encounters by chance. The woman, when seeing Kebatu with the girl, calls 999. He is arrested overnight.

Image source, Crown Prosecution Service/PA

10 July: Kebatu denies charges of sexual assault, appearing at Chelmsford Magistrates Court for the first time.

26 August: Kebatu's trial begins.

27 August: The asylum seeker denies the offences, telling the trial: "I'm not a wild animal".

4 September: Kebatu is found 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.

23 September: Kebatu is sentenced to 12 months in prison and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years. He's also told he's facing deportation.

24 October: Kebatu is accidentally released from HMP Chelmsford instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre to be deported.

25 October: Essex Police says officers are working with the Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police as Kebatu is believed to be in the London area.

26 October: Met Police confirms that Kebatu has been rearrested in the Finsbury Park area of London, bringing to an end a two-day manhunt.

Conservative MP Neil Hudson has described Kebatu's arrest as "a huge relief especially for the victims of his crimes".

He urges the Labour government to "accept full accountability for this major breach".

• As a reminder: Kebatu was living in a asylum hotel in Epping, Essex when he was arrested on multiple charges of sexual assaults

Image source, PA Media

Hadush Kebatu "must now be deported," says Liberal Democrat MP for Chelmsford Marie Goldman.

Goldman says she is relieved that Kebatu was found in London this morning, after being wrongly released from HMP Chelmsford two days ago.

Goldman's relief, however, "doesn't excuse the serious mistakes that let this happen in the first place".

"It’s unacceptable that the safety of my constituents, and the people of London, was ever put at risk," she adds.

The Lib Dem MP says the prison service had "several chances to fix it and failed," and now the government has "serious questions to answer and major work to do to make the system fit for purpose".

"A rapid, national inquiry must happen to get to the bottom of this," Goldman adds.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting tells the BBC that it's a "huge relief" that Hadush Kebatu has been arrested.

He adds that the mistakenly-released asylum seeker who had been convicted of sexual offences "will now be deported".

Streeting says Justice Secretary David Lammy "has ordered an investigation into how on earth it was that a dangerous man who was due for deportation was instead released onto our streets".

The health secretary says the government will be "open and transparent" about what went wrong, and thanks the police for their work, before adding: "This never should have happened".

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

This is the news the government - the police - and the Prison Service were desperately hoping for.

It’s significant that a member of the public provided officers with a tip off which demonstrates how the Metropolitan Police’s public appeal paid off.

But this was a massive blunder - and questions still remain over how this could have happened.

Image source, PA Media

Ethiopian national and asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu arrived in the UK on a small boat, and was jailed for 12 months over an attack in Epping, Essex, last month.

In September, Chelmsford Magistrates' Court heard Kebatu tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl on a bench and made numerous sexually explicit comments on 7 July.

The following day, he encountered the same girl and tried to kiss her before sexually assaulting her. He also sexually assaulted a woman who had offered to help him create a CV to find work.

Kebatu's arrest had sparked protests outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, where he had been living.

In September, after being found guilty of five offences, he was sentenced to 12 months and given a five-year sexual harm prevention order, which banned him from approaching or contacting any female.

After his sentencing, prison sources said Kebatu was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre from HMP Chelmsford ahead of a planned deportation, but he was accidentally released from prison on Friday.

We can now bring you the Met Police's statement in full:

Hadush Kebatu, who was released in error from HMP Chelmsford on Friday morning, has been arrested.

Kebatu was arrested by Met officers in the Finsbury Park area of London at around 08:30hrs this morning (Sunday, 26 October).

Commander James Conway, who has overseen the operation to find Kebatu, said: “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.

“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.

“I am extremely grateful to the public for their support following our appeal, which assisted in locating Mr Kebatu.”

The Met Police says Hadush Kebatu, an asylum seeker convicted of sexual offences who was mistakenly released by police, has been arrested.

The news brings to an end a two-day manhunt after Kebatu was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex on Friday morning.

The Met says Kebatu was arrested in the Finsbury Park area of London at around 08:30 this morning.

Stick with us, and we’ll bring you more detail on this breaking news story.

As we wait for further news from the police and the CCTV footage, we are pausing our live coverage for now - but you can keep up with the latest developments on this on our news story below.

Thank you for joining us.

• Met urges Epping migrant sex offender to hand himself in as manhunt continues

The manhunt is still under way for Hadush Kebatu, a sex offender who was mistakenly released from custody on Friday. His arrest on sexual assault charges sparked protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping in July, where he had been living while seeking asylum.

If you're just joining us, this is what's been happening:

• The search for Kebatu began at 12:57 BST on Friday when Essex Police were informed by the Prison Service that there had been "an error"
• By that point, Kebatu had already boarded a London-bound train from Chelmsford, arriving at Stratford - the UK's fifth busiest train station, external - at 13:12
• A video appears to show Kebatu in Chelmsford following his mistaken release from custody
• The Met Police has taken over the manhunt from Essex Police, with the force saying it has a high degree of confidence that Kebatu is still in the London area
• Prison sources have told the BBC that Kebatu was led away from the prison by staff, and directed towards the station
• Earlier today, the BBC heard that one prison officer has been suspended at HMP Chelmsford - but sources there say the incident cannot be down to the actions of one person
• In an update a little while ago, Met Police Commander James Conway said that new CCTV footage of Kebatu in London would be released imminently - he also urged Kebatu to turn himself in
• The prime minister has called the blunder "totally unacceptable", while Neil Hudson, the Conservative MP for Epping Forest has said that his constituents are "deeply distressed"

Helena Wilkinson
News correspondent

It's more than 30 hours since the last confirmed whereabouts of Hadush Kebatu at Stratford station in east London.

We're expecting the Met police to release CCTV later which might be of further confirmed sightings of the migrant sex offender.

We'll bring you that as soon as we get it.

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

The Metropolitan police said earlier that Kebatu had access to some funds.

The BBC understands these funds refer to the personal cash that was returned to him as part of his property when he left prison.

It’s not clear how much money it amounts to exactly but it’s believed to be enough to keep him going for a while.

John Podmore, the former governor of Belmarsh, Brixton and Swaleside prisons, tells BBC News there are several problems facing the prisons system in the UK.

"Lots of prisoners are held in effective solitary confinement. There's no education, no training" he says.

Although Podmore emphasises that these problems are nothing new. "There are operational failures", he says, but adds "they've been around for a long period of time".

Hadush Kebatu's mistaken release from prison is just "one symptom" of those, he says, and "we're going to have to get used to it".