HMP Wandsworth was today facing humiliation after it was revealed two prisoners have been released back onto the streets in error within the last week.
Algerian migrant sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was mistakenly freed from the scandal-hit prison on October 29, while British national William ‘Billy’ Smith has been at large since Monday.
Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was serving time for trespass with an intent to steal but has previously committed a sexual offence of indecent exposure.
He was accidentally released from the south London prison on October 29 but the mistake was only reported to the Met Police at 1pm on Tuesday, November 4, raising serious questions over why it took nearly a week for the force to be informed.
The Met launched its ‘immediate manhunt’ yesterday, declaring: ‘Cherif has had a six-day head start but we are working urgently to close the gap and establish his whereabouts.’
The fugitive came to Britain legally on a visa in 2019 but it expired and he has been here as an ‘overstayer’ since, it is understood. The Home Office flagged his immigration records as an overstayer on February 6, 2020, sources said – meaning he has been in Britain illegally since then.
Kaddour-Cherif, who has links to Tower Hamlets and Westminster, most recently appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in September on a charge of failing to comply with sex offender requirements.
The double 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.
Algerian migrant Brahim Kaddour-Cherif (pictured) has been at large after being accidentally freed from HMP Wandsworth on October 29
British national William Smith (pictured), who goes by Billy, was mistakenly freed from the scandal-hit prison on Monday
A manhunt has been launched for an Algerian prisoner who was released by mistake from Wandsworth prison (file photo)
It comes just days after Hedush Kebatu (pictured) was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre
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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.
Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, who represents Tooting, in south London, has written to the Home Secretary and Justice Secretary to demand answers, warning that many in her community will be fearful of a predator on the loose.
Just hours after details of Kaddour-Cherif’s accidental release began to emerge in deputy Prime Minister’s Questions, Surrey Police then announced a manhunt for another HMP Wandsworth prisoner.
Smith, 35, was accidently released from the prison on the same day he was sentenced to nearly four years for multiple fraud offences at Croydon Crown Court.
Surrey Police said he has ‘links to Woking but could be anywhere in Surrey’ as it carries out ‘inquiries at pace’ to track him down. He was last seen wearing a navy Nike long sleeve jumper, navy Nike tracksuit bottoms and black trainers.
Will Forster, Liberal Democrat MP for Woking, said: ‘It’s utterly unacceptable that this person [Smith] was wrongly released, especially on top of Brahim Kaddour-Cherif’s mistaken release from the same prison last week.’
Just two days before Kaddour-Cherif was released, 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 five times whether any more asylum seekers had been mistakenly freed since Kebatu during deputy Prime Minister’s Questions today.
Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge, who was standing in for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch in the Commons, asked Mr Lammy five times about any other asylum seeker prisoners being released.
Mr Lammy refused to answer. Mr Cartlidge 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.
On social media afterwords, he asked another question: ‘Now that we know the answer to my question… Can you tell me when you knew and when you were planning to tell the rest of us?’
It’s understood the Tories found out about the blunder 15 minutes before the start of deputy PMQs.
Afterwards, 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’.
Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, who represents Tooting, south London, has expressed her ‘deep concern’
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, Kaddour-Cherif became the latest to be freed in error.
Kaddour-Cherif came to Britain legally on a visa in 2019 but his visa expired and he has been here as an ‘overstayer’ since, it is understood.
The Home Office flagged his immigration records as an overstayer on February 6, 2020, sources said. It means that since then he has been in Britain illegally.
But it is unclear why no further action was taken against him when he came into contact with police and the courts on numerous occasions in recent years.
Kaddour-Cherif is now in the initial stages of the deportation process, it is understood. However, it is not clear when that process began.
He had been serving time for a break-in at the Royal Society of Literature in Somerset House on the Strand in September 2023.
He also had a previous sexual offence conviction for exposing himself to a woman in March 2024 in Lloyd Park in Walthamstow, east London – not far from his address in Tower Hamlets.
Kaddour-Cherif had previously been charged with a string of other alleged offences, including possession of a knife, handling stolen goods and another count of burglary.
He was convicted in November 2024 of indecent exposure relating to an incident in March that year. He was sentenced to an 18 month community order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
Labour’s Ms Allin-Khan 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.
Residents living near Wandsworth prison told of their dismay at another inmate being mistakenly released.
Retired nurse Judy Evans, who lives close to HMP Wandsworth, said of yet another mistaken release: ‘It appears to be becoming a habit. What a shame.
‘I keep my door locked at the front because sometimes it opens easily. But I never expect anyone at the back – but I should start!’
She continued: ‘They’ll no doubt have the helicopters going round soon.
‘I do hear the helicopters flying around and I think, ‘Who are they looking for?’ But it could be anything!’
One man who lives near the prison told of his general concern about security at the prison over drones flying over the site to drop in what he assumed were drugs – despite large signage proscribing the prison a ‘no fly zone’.
‘It’s a pretty bad place,’ he said.
Conservative MP for Brentwood and Ongar Alex Burghart reacted on X to the news of the release
One couple who live near the prison said they felt this incident was just another example of the institution’s security issues too, given they have seen many videos on TikTok of drones flying over the prison – just near their house.
In fact, on one occasion, a drone even became stuck in a tree in their front garden.
A woman who lives nearby told of how helicopters have been circling for the past 48 hours.
She said: ‘I remember the escape of Daniel Khalife – just minutes from my front door and now this.
‘How many times can they let this happen? They obviously don’t have enough staff.’
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.
In a letter to Mr Lammy and Shabana Mahmood, Ms Allin-Khan said: ‘This event raises serious questions about the operational procedures and staffing levels within Wandsworth Prison and across the wider prison estate, which as you will know I have been raising for many years.
‘In your role as Justice Secretary, what reassurances can you give to local residents in my community that Wandsworth Prison remains fit for purpose following these major security failures?
‘Furthermore, can you explain why it took almost a week for the Metropolitan Police to be made aware of this, and how many days did it take the Ministry of Justice to find out he was released incorrectly?’
The Labour MP added: ‘Residents in Tooting will be eager to know that every measure is being taken to ensure that Wandsworth Prison is secure and that this individual is returned to custody as soon as possible.’
During PMQs, Mr Cartlidge said: ‘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?’
A woman with a Union Jack flag protests near The Bell Hotel, following the mistaken release of Kebatu
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.
A CCTV image issued by the Metropolitan Police (pictured) shows Hadush Kebatu in Dalston, London
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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.’
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: ‘Another dangerous criminal is on the loose thanks to Labour. What a total farce.’
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp accused Mr Lammy of ‘bluster’ and hiding the truth.
‘Despite the fact that David Lammy was standing there with the briefing notes in his folder, he chose not to tell the public and Parliament,’ Mr Philp said.
‘He hid the truth and he was dishonest with Parliament and dishonest with the public.’
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said the farce of Kaddour-Cherif’s release had been ‘covered up’ by Mr Lammy at PMQs.
Mr Jenrick released a letter urging the Deputy Prime Minister to return to the Commons chamber today to provide a ‘full account’.
‘The British people are being put at risk by the sheer incompetence of your Government,’ the Tory frontbencher wrote.
He asked Mr Lammy a series of questions including why he did not inform the public immediately of Kaddour-Cherif’s release, and why police were not told of the error for six days.
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’.
