Public perception of the competence of the British state took a beating on Friday after the very illegal boat migrant who triggered nation-wide protests was accidentally released from prison just one month into his sentence for sexually assaulting a child.

Ethiopian migrant Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, whose propositioning and groping of a child in Epping, Essex just days after he arrived in the United Kingdom by smuggler boat across the English Channel caused anti-migrant hotel protests over the summer has accidentally been released from prison.

Kebatu had been sentenced to a one-year sentence for two counts of sex assault, one against a 14-year-old girl, and one of inciting a child to sexual activity, just last month. Yet despite being only 31 days into that 12-month sentence, Kebatu was released from HMP Chelmsford on Friday morning.

Sky News reports he was supposed to be picked up from prison by Border Force officers to be taken to a deportation centre pending a flight out of the country. Why this did not happen has not yet been explained, but a prison officer has been relieved of duty pending an investigation.

In an extraordinary development, the broadcaster reveals the father of the child touched and propositioned by Kebatu turned up to Chelmsford prison tonight to demand answers on how the attacker could possibly have been accidentally released. He is reported to have said he felt “frustrated” by the news and reflected: “the justice system has let us down”.

Kebatu was seen walking around Chelmsford on Friday afternoon before boarding a train to London.

Wearing distinctive grey prison clothes, Kebatu was seen carrying a clear plastic bag presumably containing his belongings from the time of his arrest, including a paper bag that appeared to be labelled “evidence”, and a copy of a Salvation Army magazine.

Three police forces are seeking Kebatu to bring him back into custody and justice minister David Lammy said on Friday night that it is “all hands on deck” in London to track him down.

Essex Police said in a statement, notes The Sun, that their officers were made aware of the “error” at 12:57 on Friday afternoon, shortly after Kebatu is understood to have boarded a London-bound train at 12:41. The force said they were engaged in “fast-paced enquiries” and reassured the public that “we have officers working to urgently locate and detain him.”

Criticism of the government over the debacle is piling up, with the Conservatives calling for a full inquiry and Brexit’s Nigel Farage observing that events of today are further evidence that “Britain is broken”. His Reform UK party noted that while they vowed to deport foreign criminals, the Labour government was instead “releases them back onto the streets”.

The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, called the “mistake” totally unacceptable and said he was appalled. He added: “This man must be caught and deported for his crimes.”

As previously reported, when news broke of a child being sexually assaulted by a migrant male that lived in a ‘migrant hotel’ — taxpayer-funded accommodation for the thousands that come to Britain by boat illegally every year, yet who the government seems generally disinclined to discourage or deport — protests quickly began in the town of Epping. These spread to other parts of England and Wales over the summer, leading to some clashes with police, as locals in other towns turned out to object to the presence of similar migrant hotels in their neighbourhoods.