An Algerian prisoner whose early release sparked a manhunt has been named as 24-year-old Brahim Kaddour-Cherif.
Kaddour-Cherif was serving a sentence at HMP Wandsworth in south-west London for trespass with intent to steal, but had previously also been convicted for indecent exposure, sources said.
The Algerian man was accidentally freed from HMP Wandsworth in south-west London on October 29, but the mistake was only reported to the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday, the force said.
His release comes just five days after the high-profile sex offender Hadush Kebatu was released by mistake from HMP Chelmsford.
In the wake of Kebatu’s release, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy said prison services would implement enhanced checks on prisoner releases.
The Metropolitan Police have said: “Shortly after 1pm on Tuesday, November 4, the Met was informed by the Prison Service that a prisoner had been released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday, October 29.
“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.”
Speaking to BBC’s World At One, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said he was a foreign criminal, “suspected of a knife offence,” but that many of the facts of the case were still to be established.
In a letter to Lammy and the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, MP for Tooting, Rosena Allin-Khan, claimed the released prisoner was in custody on a charge of trespass with intent to steal, but had alleged he had a “history of criminality” including sexual offences.
Allin-Khan said this release, as well as that of Hadush Kebatu and the escape of Daniel Khalife, “raises serious questions about the operational procedures and staffing levels within Wandsworth Prison and across the wider prison estate.”
When asked by reporters on Wednesday whether the prime minister was aware of the situation, his spokesman said: “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”.
Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.
Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu was arrested on Sunday October 26 after a two-day manhunt and forcibly deported.
During Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, David Lammy was pressed on whether there had been any further mistaken releases after Kebatu.
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge 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?”
Lammy, who stood in for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, refused to confirm this and lambasted the justice system the government inherited from the Conservatives.
In the last year the number of accidental releases from prison has more than doubled, with the Institute for Government reporting 262 accidental releases in 2024/25, up from 115 in the previous year.
This equates to around 21 accidentally released prisoners each month.
It is understood David Lammy found out about the mistaken release overnight, prior to PMQs on Wednesday.
David Lammy was repeatedly asked during PMQs if he knew of further accidental releases from prison. Credit: PA
In a statement released after PMQs, the Deputy Prime Minister David 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.
“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.”
Describing the news of the release as “shocking,” Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Once again the Labour government has mistakenly allowed a foreign criminal to be released from prison.
“Justice Secretary David Lammy refused to answer five times at Prime Minister’s questions today whether any further foreign prisoners were recently released mistakenly. Mr Lammy needs to urgently confirm if the Ministry of Justice were informed about the release, and if he personally knew about it before PMQs. This makes a mockery of Lammy’s claims at PMQs to have introduced the “strongest checks ever” on release.
“In my view all foreign criminals should be automatically deported at the end of their sentence. We will need to leave the ECHR to do that, but the Labour government is too weak.”
From Westminster to Washington DC – our political experts are across all the latest key talking points. Listen to the latest episode below…
