A ‘sex offender’ who was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth last week and remains on the loose has been named
A sex offender who was accidentally released from a high security prison last week has been named as Brahim Kaddour-Cherif.
He most recently appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in September on a charge of failing to comply with sex offender requirements, it has been reported.
The 24-year-old was mistakenly freed from HMP Wandsworth in London on October 29 and remains at large. He was serving time for trespass with an intent to steal, but has previously committed sexual offences. The Metropolitan Police confirmed that the man is of Algerian descent and say they’re now carrying out urgent enquiries in an effort to “locate him and return him to custody”.
Labour MP for Tooting Dr Rosena Allin-Khan said she was “horrified” by the news, given the prisoner’s “shocking list of offences”. She told the Mirror: “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.”
The news comes just days after a convicted sex offender was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex before he was spotted boarding a train to London.
Hadush Kebatu, 38, spent three days at large before he was arrested in a north London park. The Ethiopian national was pictured being led away by a group of plain-clothed police officers near a bus stop in Finsbury Park on October 26. He was just weeks into a 12 month jail sentence for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and woman in Essex. Kebatu had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping when he carried out his crimes.
After he was caught, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer confirmed he would “be deported”, adding “we must make sure this doesn’t happen again”.
In September 2023, prisoner Daniel Khalife triggered a widespread manhunt after fleeing HMP Wandsworth by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery van using a makeshift sling of bedsheets. The then-21-year-old was caught three days later on a canal in west London.
Reacting to the most recent case, David Lammy said he was “absolutely outraged and appalled by the mistaken release of a foreign criminal wanted by the police”.
Lammy continued: “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.”
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