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Epping sex attacker Hadush Kebatu’s teenage victim blasted prison chiefs for their disastrous handling of the sex fiend, a scathing review revealed.

Former police chief Dame Lynne Owens, in an alarming assessment of England’s crumbling jails, warned more convicts will be wrongly let out.

She carried out a review after fury erupted over the mistaken release of Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu, who sexually assaulted schoolgirls in Epping.

Justice Secretary David Lammy said the release was caused by a “broken” system overly reliant on paper documents and characterised by overly complex procedures and poor communication.

And the former Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Dame Lynne Owens warned the overcrowding crisis behind bars may have contributed to the bungled release.

The family of one of Kebatu’s victims said it was an “insult” the sex attacker was allowed to leave prison early, under the Early Removal Scheme which allows offenders to be booted out of the country after serving only 30% of their sentence behind bars.

Dame Lynne revealed: “Mr Kebatu was from Ethiopia, which is a country to which removals are difficult, and it was explained to me that the Government considered there to be a risk he would raise barriers to his removal had he not been removed under the Early Removal Scheme.

“It was their view that, as I understand it, based on public mood, the Government should support deportation at the earliest opportunity.

“It was their view that it was “an insult” that Mr Kebatu had not served his whole sentence, and they argued that deportation with no consequences in his home country left women and girls there exposed to potential abuse by a convicted criminal.

“They asked directly whether the prison Governor could have refused his early removal from the UK.”

New figures revealed a criminal is wrongly let out every 48 hours.

The Government said it will introduce digital identities for prisoners and use fingerprints and facial scans to reduce the number of errors.

Dame Lynne added: “The release in error of Mr Kebatu had a profound and detrimental impact on both the victim and her family.

“They described the experience as “retraumatising.” Victim A’s father described the fear he had knowing that Mr Kebatu, on mistaken release, could have reencountered his daughter and what could have occurred.

“Notably, and appallingly, Victim A learned of Mr Kebatu’s release in error from social media, underscoring the scale and speed at which information.”

Dame Lynne added: “It is probable that capacity pressures faced by the system and the subsequent operational focus on relieving these pressures reduced the attention to the public confidence test in this case.

“It is almost certain that the public confidence test should have been applied in this case.

“It is almost certain that the decision to apply the Early Removal Scheme was a contributing factor in Mr Kebatu’s release in error.

“The interchangeable use of the abbreviated ‘ERS’, is likely to have caused confusion in the Kebatu case.”

The case sparked nationwide outrage over the number of prisoners let out by mistake.

The asylum seeker, 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.

New figures, published by the Ministry of Justice, revealed 179 prisoners were wrongly released in the space of a year.

Shoddy “arrangements” between courts and prisons are also increasing the risks of more mistakes, Dame Lynne said.

She said: “Without urgent rectification, I am almost certain that substantial errors will persist. This issue was first highlighted in 2021, and yet there has been extremely limited progress since.”

Responding to her report, Mr Lammy said: “This independent review makes clear the unacceptable rise in release in errors have resulted from a broken system caused by 14 years of underinvestment and overcrowding in our prisons and courts.

“A system broken by over a decade of neglect cannot be fixed overnight, but in addition to the measures we put in place last year, today we are taking action to bring the prison system into the 21st century.

“We are rolling out biometrics, a new Justice ID and up to £82 million to bear down on these errors and keep the public safe after years of chaos.

“£20 million of this will be used this year to digitise the archaic paper-based processes we inherited, as well as putting in more checks and more staff in place to stop these mistakes before they happen.”