A migrant sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison was given £500 as he was deported back to Ethiopia.
Hadush Kebatu was flown back to his home country on Tuesday night and arrived on Wednesday morning with no right to return to Britain, the Home Office said.
It is understood he was given a discretionary payment of £500 by officials in the removals team as he threatened to disrupt his deportation, which could have led to a slower and more expensive process.
The Ethiopian national had been wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford on Friday morning instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre, triggering a two-day manhunt.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she shared the public’s anger over his release and had “pulled every lever” to remove Kebatu from British soil, but opposition MPs said his deportation did not excuse the fiasco.
Ministers did not approve the payment which was an operational decision, it is understood.
Prisons have been told to start a series of enhanced checks before inmates are released after the blunder, while an independent inquiry has been announced to establish what went wrong.
A prison officer has been suspended while the probe is carried out.
Kebatu had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, when he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman, sparking a wave of protests outside the accommodation used to house asylum seekers.
