Police have launched an urgent manhunt after a migrant prisoner was mistakenly freed from scandal-hit HMP Wandsworth.
The Algerian convict, 24, is understood to have been serving time for trespass with an intent to steal but has previously committed a sexual offence of indecent exposure.
It’s understood the missing prisoner is Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, who was previously linked to an address in east London.
He was released from the south London prison in error on October 29 but the mistake was only reported to the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday (November 4), raising serious questions over why it took nearly a week for the force to be informed.
The blunder is the latest controversy to hit HMP Wandsworth, the same prison where former soldier Daniel Khalife mounted his high-profile escape from and where female prison officer Linda De Sousa Abreu was filmed having sex with an inmate.
The Algerian’s accidental release also marks another humiliating blow to the Government who are still scrambling to recover from the fallout of migrant sex attacker Hadush Kebatu being mistakenly freed from HMP Chelmsford just days ago.
Kebatu, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, Essex, was freed in error on October 24 before he was arrested in Finsbury Park, north London, three days later.
The Ethiopian migrant, whose offences sparked protests outside the asylum seeker hotel he was staying in and around the country, was deported to his home country last Tuesday. He was paid £500 in taxpayers’ money to leave after threatening to disrupt his removal.
David Lammy, the Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, had vowed to increase checks on prisoners being released following the nationwide manhunt for Kebatu.
It’s understood he knew about the second wrongly released prisoner ‘overnight’ but refused to answer whether any more asylum seekers had been mistakenly freed since Kebatu during Prime Minister’s Questions today.
Mr Lammy, who was standing in for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, refused to answer five times.
Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge, who was standing in for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch in the Commons, then said in a point of order at the end of the session he was reading reports that the Algerian inmate was on the run.
After PMQs, Mr Lammy released a statement saying he was ‘absolutely outraged and appalled’ by the error, and blamed the Tories for the ‘failing’ system Labour ‘inherited’.
Mr Lammy said: ‘I am absolutely outraged and appalled by the mistaken release of a foreign criminal wanted by the police. The Metropolitan Police is leading an urgent manhunt, and my officials have been working through the night to take him back to prison.’
He added: ‘Victims deserve better and the public deserve answers.
‘That is why I have already brought in the strongest checks ever to clamp down on such failures and ordered an independent investigation, led by Dame Lynne Owens to uncover what went wrong and address the rise in accidental releases which has persisted for too long.
‘This latest incident exposes deeper flaws across the failing criminal justice system we inherited.
‘Dame Lynne Owens’ investigation will leave no stone unturned to identify these issues, so we can fix them, improve safeguards and ensure the public is properly protected.’
On Monday last week – October 27 – in the wake of the Kebatu scandal, Mr Lammy told MPs the Prison Service had ‘taken steps to make these processes more robust’.
He pledged there would be ‘more direct senior accountability for ensuring that protocols and checks are correctly applied’.
There would also be a ‘clear checklist for governors to determine that every step has been followed the evening before any release takes place’.
Mr Lammy added: ‘These are the strongest release checks that have ever been in place. They will apply to every release from custody and are effective immediately.’
However, just two days later on Wednesday October 29, the Algerian prisoner became the latest to be freed in error.
The Daily Mail understands that the Algerian is not currently an asylum seeker. However, his exact immigration status in Britain remains unknown.
It is possible the man first entered the UK as an asylum seeker and has since been granted permission to stay in humanitarian grounds.
Alternatively he may have entered through a separate legal route, such as on a student visa.
Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, who represents Tooting, south London, said she had been ‘raising issues’ about Wandsworth prison for years.
‘I’m horrified to learn that someone was mistakenly released from Wandsworth Prison with such a shocking list of offences. Local residents will quite rightly be deeply concerned. We urgently need answers from the Government and Ministry of Justice as to how this was allowed to happen,’ she said.
In September 2023, Daniel Khalife, who was awaiting trial for spying for Iran, escaped from HMP Wandsworth after strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery truck. He was arrested in Northolt, west London, three days later after a huge manhunt.
Then earlier this year, HMP Wandsworth prisoner officer Linda De Sousa Abreu was jailed for 15 months after she was filmed having sex with an inmate.
An inspection last year found failures in leadership ‘at every level’, with high rates of self-harm, dangerous levels of violence and drugs, severe overcrowding and appalling conditions.
During PMQs, Mr Cartlidge asked: ‘I want to ask him a further very important question – can he reassure the House that since Kebatu was released, no other asylum seeking offender has been accidentally let out of prison?’
Mr Lammy refused to confirm – and lambasted the justice system the Government inherited from the Conservatives.
He replied: ‘Let me just remind him that he was a justice minister that allowed our prisons to get to this state in the first place and it’s now for us to fix the mess that we’ve got into.
‘It’s important that Dame Lynne Owens can now continue her work and understand what is happening. He knows that early releases begun under their watch in 2021.’
Mr Cartlidge then repeated his question. He said: ‘He’s the Justice Secretary. He’s responsible for the justice system. He needs to take responsibility.
‘And I’m going to repeat it once more for the avoidance of doubt, because he did not answer it twice.
‘Can he reassure the House that since Kebatu was released, no other asylum-seeking offender has been accidentally let out of prison?’
Mr Lammy told him to ‘get a grip’.
‘In 25 years in this House, I have not witnessed a more shameful spectacle frankly than what the party opposite left in our justice system,’ he said.
‘Their criminal negligence, on his watch as a former justice minister, they left our prisons on the brink of collapse entirely, threatening to allow offenders to run wild on our streets.
‘He knows that. Rape victims waiting years for their day in court. He knows that. Neighbourhood policing decimated, leaving our people feeling unsafe in their communities, and they haven’t learned a thing.
‘We are tackling knife crime, that’s why it’s falling, 13,000 more bobbies we are putting on the streets, kicking out 5,000 foreign criminal offenders. I’ve got to say, he should do better.’
In a point of order at the conclusion of PMQs, Mr Cartlidge said: ‘The Telegraph are reporting that a police manhunt has been launched for a second asylum seeker mistakenly freed from prison.
‘The question is, can (the Speaker) advise on how I can ask the Justice Secretary whether he was aware of this when I asked him about it repeatedly in Prime Minister’s question.’
Mr Lammy did not respond. It is understood he believed it would have been irresponsible to talk about the mistaken release of a second foreign prisoner while details were still emerging. He found out about the error at HMP Wandsworth overnight.
The Prime Minister was not aware of the second migrant wrongly released from prison until the Metropolitan Police announcement, Downing Street suggested.
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman told reporters on Wednesday: ‘The Met have released a statement I think in the last few minutes.’
He said ‘one mistaken release is one too many’ and that the case was ‘utterly unacceptable’.
The official could not say when Mr Lammy became aware of the release, after he refused to answer multiple questions in the Chamber on whether another asylum-seeking offender had been mistakenly freed from prison since Kebatu.
The Conservative Party found out about the mistaken release of a prisoner some 15-20 minutes before the start of PMQs.
A spokesman for Kemi Badenoch said: ‘If we knew, one can only assume the Justice Secretary knew.’
The spokesman said Mr Cartlidge had given Mr Lammy ‘the opportunity to front up’ but ‘he ducked it six times’.
‘In fact, he got quite angry, claimed he’d put in the toughest checks ever – which clearly cannot be the case because another one’s got out accidentally,’ the spokesman said.
The Conservatives decided it was ‘not our place’ to announce the mistaken release themselves, the spokesman said.
Mr Lammy should come back to the Commons ‘and do a statement as soon as possible’, the spokesman added.
The Metropolitan Police told the Daily Mail in a statement today: ‘Shortly after 1pm on Tuesday 4 November, the Met was informed by the Prison Service that a prisoner had been released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday 29 October.
‘The prisoner is a 24-year-old Algerian man.
‘Officers are carrying out urgent enquiries in an effort to locate him and return him to custody.’
The Liberal Democrats have demanded Mr Lammy explain why he had failed to answer questions about the ‘unacceptable’ mistaken release of a foreign prisoner.
The party’s justice spokesperson Jess Brown-Fuller said: ‘Just when you couldn’t think things could get any worse for the Ministry of Justice, somehow they have. It would be laughable if the situation weren’t so dangerous.
‘This is yet another grave mistake from the Government. The public deserves a full explanation about how this has happened again. That should start with David Lammy coming back before Parliament this afternoon for why he failed to answer this pressing question in PMQs as well as a full explanation of how it took almost a week for this to come to light.
‘It’s utterly unacceptable that public safety has been put at risk yet again. Both the Government and the Prison Service must own up to their failures and guarantee that these mistakes will stop happening once and for all.’
It comes as the number of prisoners released in error more than doubled in the year leading up to March, government figures show.
A report by the prison service said 262 inmates were freed by mistake in this period, compared to just 115 in the year to March 2024.
The Prime Minister was not aware of the second migrant wrongly released from prison until the Metropolitan Police announcement, Downing Street suggested.
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman told reporters on Wednesday: ‘The Met have released a statement I think in the last few minutes.’
He said ‘one mistaken release is one too many’ and that the case was ‘utterly unacceptable’.
