Police are searching for two prisoners who were accidentally released from Wandsworth Prison in London within a week, an alarming incident that has once again raised questions about the UK’s prison management system.
The first to be mistakenly freed was Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, an Algerian sex offender, on 29th October. A few days later, on Monday, 3rd November, convicted fraudster William Smith was also wrongly released from the same prison.
The news comes only weeks after another serious blunder, the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian national and convicted sex offender, from a prison in Essex. These back-to-back cases have put Justice Secretary David Lammy under intense political fire, especially after he had earlier promised to implement strict checks following Kebatu’s case.
Questions in Parliament and a political firestorm
The issue reached Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) this week, where David Lammy, standing in for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, was questioned about whether any asylum-seeking offender had been wrongly released since Kebatu’s case. Lammy, however, refused to give a direct answer.
As the session concluded, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that, indeed, on October 29th, a foreign prisoner had been mistakenly released from custody; they were informed of this nearly a week later.
The man was later identified by police as Kaddour-Cherif, who has known links to Tower Hamlets and Westminster in London. He was convicted in November 2024 for indecent exposure that took place earlier that year. He received an 18-month community order and a placement on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
According to reports, Kaddour-Cherif entered the UK legally on a visit visa in 2019 but overstayed after his visa ran out. Officials had already marked him as a “probable overstayer” in 2020.
The BBC later reported that he is not an asylum seeker and that David Lammy was informed overnight about his accidental release.
Justice Secretary, Lammy, calls the error “outrageous”
Following the police statement, Lammy issued a strong response, calling the mistake “absolutely outrageous and appalling.” He said victims deserve better and that such errors were “completely unacceptable.”
Lammy announced an independent investigation, to be led by Dame Lynne Owens, into the repeated failures that have allowed such releases to happen. “I’ve already introduced the strongest checks ever,” he said, “but it’s clear more must be done to stop these mistakes once and for all.”
Opposition parties, however, were not convinced. Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said, “It’s shocking that yet again a foreign criminal has been mistakenly released. This makes a mockery of Lammy’s claim that he has introduced the ‘strongest checks ever.’”
The second prisoner was also released in error
Only hours after the police confirmed Kaddour-Cherif’s mistaken release, another shocking update came from Surrey Police. They revealed that William Smith, a convicted fraudster, had also been accidentally released from the same prison, Wandsworth, earlier this week.
Smith received a jail term of 45 months on Monday, 3rd November, for various fraud-related offences, but was mistakenly released on the same day. Further investigation by the BBC revealed this occurred when court staff inadvertently marked his sentence as suspended instead of custodial. While the mistake was later corrected, the information was passed on to the wrong official, who released him.
Police described Smith as white, bald, and clean-shaven. He was last seen wearing a navy jumper with a white Nike logo, navy track pants, and black trainers. Officers have urged anyone with information to come forward immediately.
According to official figures, 262 prisoners were released by mistake in England and Wales in the year up to March 2025, a 128% jump from the previous year. Staff at Wandsworth told the BBC that panic has spread through the prison since these recent errors. Security concerns at Wandsworth are not new; last year’s inspection report described widespread chaos and poor prisoner tracking, and in 2023, the same prison made headlines when Daniel Khalife escaped while awaiting trial for spying for Iran.
The earlier case of sex offender Hadush Kebatu
These latest incidents come to light just weeks after the public outcry over Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian asylum seeker who was mistakenly released after being convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage girl and a woman in Essex.
Kebatu was imprisoned in September for the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl and another woman. He was sentenced to one year in prison but was mistakenly released just a month later. An independent inquiry, also headed by Dame Lynne Owens, is already underway to investigate how such a serious error occurred.
A two-day manhunt followed, and Kebatu was eventually rearrested on 26th October in Finsbury Park, North London, after travelling there from Chelmsford. He was deported two days later, but only after officials gave him £500 when he threatened to disrupt the deportation process.
The father of the 14-year-old victim told ITV News that the government’s handling of the case had “relentlessly failed” his family. “She was getting better until last weekend,” he said. “All I can do now is try to pick up the pieces that the government keeps breaking.”
He expressed deep frustration, saying, “We haven’t had a single apology, no recognition, nothing. It’s just been failure after failure. I’m not angry, I’m disgusted.”
The young girl also shared a written statement with the broadcaster, in which she said she “couldn’t sleep” because she “was so worried he was going to come back to Epping looking for me”.
Kebatu’s assault on the girl sparked nationwide protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers over the summer, with some escalating into violence.
He said the entire process, from Kebatu’s arrest to his deportation, took just 17 weeks, calling it “disgusting” that such a serious case ended with no real justice for his daughter.
