A total of four prisoners are missing after being mistakenly freed this year and last, it has been reported
Two prisoners are still on the run after being mistakenly freed last year, it has been reported.
Another two prisoners, released in error in June, are also still missing. The identities of all four, along with the reasons for their imprisonment and the circumstances of their mistaken release, have not yet been made public.
It comes as ministers have come under increasing scrutiny over several high-profile mistaken releases and re-arrests in recent weeks. Sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, who was mistakenly released from prison on October 29, was arrested by police on Friday after being spotted by a member of the public in Finsbury Park, London. Fraudster William Smith, 35, who was mistakenly released on Monday, handed himself back in to HMP Wandsworth on Thursday. High-profile manhunts had been launched for both men.
Kaddour-Cherif, from Algeria, was convicted in November 2024 of indecent exposure relating to an incident in March that year. He was given an 18-month community order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years. Smith, who goes by Billy, was sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences at Croydon Crown Court on Monday.
Several days before Kaddour-Cherif’s mistaken release, Hadush Kebatu was released in error from HMP Chelmsford on October 24. He had been jailed for 12 months in September for sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl, and was subject to a five-year sexual harm prevention order. Kebatu, an Ethiopian national, was arrested by Met officers in Finsbury Park, London on October 26.
Around 262 prisoners in England and Wales were mistakenly freed in the year to March, compared with 115 the year before.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told the BBC: “The vast majority of offenders released by mistake are quickly brought back to prison, and we will do everything we can to work with the police to capture the few still in the community.”
Justice Secretary David Lammy said on Friday that the government “inherited a prison system in crisis”, adding that he was “appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing”.
He continued: “I’m determined to grip this problem, but there is a mountain to climb which cannot be done overnight. That is why I have ordered new tough release checks, commissioned an independent investigation into systemic failures, and begun overhauling archaic paper-based systems still used in some prisons.”
But Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said the unaccounted prisoners revealed “the incompetence of this government”. He added: “It shouldn’t be left to reporters to uncover the facts. David Lammy must finally come clean about how many prisoners have been accidentally released and how many are still at large.”
