Police are continuing a manhunt for an asylum seeker who was mistakenly released from prison on Friday, weeks after being jailed for sexually assaulting a schoolgirl in Essex.

Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre from HMP Chelmsford ahead of a planned deportation on Friday but Justice Secretary David Lammy said the 41-year-old is now "at large" in London.

Lammy said officers from the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police (BTP) and Essex Police were working together to trace Kebatu, who was jailed for 12 months in September.

Sir Keir Starmer described the release as "totally unacceptable".

The prime minister said Kebatu "must be caught and deported for his crimes", adding that police are "working urgently to track him down".

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the release was a "level of incompetence that beggars belief".

"Conservatives voted against Labour's prisoner release program because it was putting predators back on our streets," she said on X.

The Prison Service has removed an officer from discharging duties while an investigation takes place.

Essex Police said Kebatu boarded a London-bound train at Chelmsford station at 12:41 on Friday.

The force said it was informed by the prison services about "an error" at 12:57 on Friday.

A statement continued: "We understand the concern the public would have regarding this situation and can assure you we have officers working to urgently locate and detain him."

Lammy said he was "appalled" and "livid on behalf of the public".

He continued: "Let's be clear Kebatu committed a nasty sexual assault involving a young child and a woman. And for those reasons this of course is very serious."

A Prison Service spokesperson said: "We are urgently working with police to return an offender to custody following a release in error at HMP Chelmsford.

"Public protection is our top priority, and we have launched an investigation into this incident."

Kebatu's arrest in July sparked protests outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, where he had been living after arriving in the UK on a small boat.

In September, Chelmsford Magistrates' Court heard Kebatu tried to kiss a teenage girl on a bench and made numerous sexually explicit comments.

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 draft a CV to find work.

During the trial, Kebatu gave his date of birth as December 1986, making him 38, but court records suggested he was 41.

He was found guilty of five offences and sentenced to 12 moths. He was also given a five-year sexual harm prevention order, which banned him from approaching or contacting any female, and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

The court heard it was his "firm wish" to be deported.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: "He is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is broken."

A report from His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service said 262 prisoners in England and Wales were released in error between April 2024 and March 2025, up from 115 in the previous 12 months.

Catherine Connolly has been elected as the president of Ireland after a landslide victory.

She has become the 10th president of the Republic of Ireland after defeating Fine Gael's Heather Humphreys, who had already conceded to her rival.

The result, long clear from early tallies, was officially declared at Dublin Castle.

Connolly – an independent who was backed by the major left-wing parties – is taking over from Michael D Higgins who served the maximum two terms in office.

The 68-year-old, from Galway, has been a TD (member of the Irish parliament) since 2016 and previously worked as a psychologist and barrister.

She secured 914,143 first preference votes, the largest amount in Irish presidential election history.

Connolly, who made her acceptance speech first in Irish and then in English, pledged to be "an inclusive president for all".

"I will be a president who listens and reflects and who speaks when it's necessary," she said.

"I will be a voice for peace, a voice that builds on our policy of neutrality, a voice that articulates the existential threat posed by climate change, and a voice that recognises the tremendous work being done the length and breadth of the country."

When spoilt votes were excluded, Humphreys won 29% of first preference votes, while Fianna Fail's Jim Gavin, who withdrew from the race but remained on the ballot paper, won 7% first preference votes.

There were 213,738 spoiled votes, an unprecedented amount, and a turnout of 46%.

A suspect has been arrested after footage which appears to capture the alleged attempted rape of a woman on a train near Paris went viral, local media say.

Jhordana Dias, a 26-year-old Brazilian national, was allegedly attacked earlier this month. She told Le Parisien newspaper that the man boarded the train, pushed her and attempted to pull down her underwear.

Alerted by her screams, another passenger pulled out her phone to film. The footage captures a man fleeing as the train pulls into a station.

The incident has revived discussions around women's safety in France.

According to French media, a man was arrested on Friday evening by transport police in Mantes-la-Jolie, north-west of Paris. He was traced there by investigators, but it is unclear how.

He was not carrying identity documentation at the time of his arrest, but told police he was a 26-year-old Egyptian national, media reports say. He remains in custody.

The alleged incident took place on 15 October between the Choisy-le-Roi and Villeneuve-le-Roi train stations, south-east of Paris.

The video shows shows a man dressed in a black tracksuit and cap onboard a carriage.

Over the sound of a woman's cries, the woman filming can be hearing saying "you stay there" as the man appears to begin approaching her.

The train then pulls into a station, and the man disembarks and flees down the platform.

The woman who filmed the incident, named in French media only as Marguerite, has since been widely credited as having saved Ms Dias from a more serious attack.

Ms Dias, who does not speak French, reportedly filed a complaint with police in Choisy-le-Roi with the help of her brother, who translated her testimony.

The footage has been widely circulated on news outlets and social media. prompting many women to share their own experiences of harassment on public transport in France.

Two other women have since told Le Parisian that they had been victims of the same man.