Fury erupts over Labour's attempts to justify 'bribe' to sex attack migrant

Labour faces fresh fury tonight for justifying "bribing" migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu to leave the UK.

Policing minister Sarah Jones said removing him from the flight on Tuesday and taking him back into custody would have cost thousands of pounds - leading to the £500 offer.

"And that was the choice, galling, though that is ... I hope people understand that that was the choice they faced, and that was the right thing to do," she told Sky News.

Kebatu threatened, before leaving Wormwood Scrubs and at Heathrow Airport, to claim asylum and exploit Britain's human rights laws to force his way off Tuesday night's flight, sparking fears of huge costs to the taxpayer and delays to his deportation.

But Shadow Home Office minister Matt Vickers said: "No decent government pays off a paedophile. Labour let a dangerous criminal break into Britain, put him in a taxpayer-funded hotel, allowed him to attack a child, and when he was finally caught, they paid him to leave. It's a grotesque failure of duty and shows how morally bankrupt this government is.

"None of this should have been allowed to happen. Kebatu should have been deported the moment he broke into Britain. Every stage of this case happened because Labour don't have the backbone to protect our borders."

Dr Neil Hudson, the MP for Epping, said: "It can't be right. Again, with this Labour Government they are blaming people on the frontline. In the press and in the Chamber of the House of Commons they have said this was an operational decision and ministers were not involved.

"This is just typical. They throw people on the frontline under the bus.

"When he was mistakenly released on Friday, they blamed an operational matter, they blamed the frontline and this situation where the man was effectively bribed to get on the plane, again, blaming people on the frontline.

"I would say ministers have to be involved. They are not commentators in this.

"These are ministers in charge and they have to get a grip. They have power and they need to be responsible for that.

"It really is untenable. They are still operating like a party of protest."

Kebatu, who was being housed at The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, was arrested for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and another woman just days after arriving in the UK on a small boat.

The migrant told two teenagers he wanted to "have a baby with each of them" and attempted to kiss them, before putting his hand on one of the girls' thighs and stroking her hair, his trial was told.

He was also found to have sexually assaulted a woman by trying to kiss her, putting his hand on her leg and telling her she was pretty.

The Ethiopian was sentenced to 12 months in jail, but because of the time he had served on remand before his trial, he was eligible for immediate deportation under new early removal rules for foreign offenders.

It then took four weeks to negotiate Kebatu's deportation with Ethiopia.

And a manhunt was launched after the Channel migrant was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford instead of being transferred to an immigration removal centre.

Kebatu tried five times to return to the prison but was told to head to the train station instead.

He was spotted in Chelmsford, Stratford and Dalston before being caught in Finsbury Park in North London.

Footage of Kebatu's eventual arrest shows the sex offender near a bench, where he was apprehended by four officers yards from a children's play area.

After three days on the run, he was taken back into detention and told he would be deported within days.

And the Ethiopian sex fiend was booked onto the 20:15 Ethiopian Airways flight from Heathrow Airport on Tuesday night.

Kebatu, whose lawyer told his trial that the "sports teacher" wanted to be deported, threatened to change his mind just hours before his flight.

He warned he would file an asylum claim - both before leaving for the airport and whilst at Heathrow Airport - before eventually agreeing to leave after he was offered £500.

The Channel migrant was said to be "compliant" as he walked onto the plane to Addis Ababa.