A prisoner released by mistake earlier this week has handed himself in, while the hunt continues for a foreign sex offender also freed in error.
Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said talks are taking place with prison chiefs and a team of digital experts has been tasked with overhauling the “archaic” paper-based system of prisoner records.
What do we know about the foreign offender on the run?
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a 24-year-old Algerian national, was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth in south London on 29 October.
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The Prison Service informed the Metropolitan Police about the error six days later, shortly after 1pm on Tuesday 4 November, and a manhunt was launched.
It is not yet clear why it was nearly a week between the first release at HMP Wandsworth and the police being informed that an offender was at large.
His release has also raised difficult questions for the justice secretary, David Lammy, who declined to say anything about the case when asked about it in the House of Commons by the Conservatives on Wednesday – despite, in fact, already being aware the foreign offender was on the run.
It is understood Mr Lammy believed it would have been irresponsible to talk about the case – involving several agencies – while details were still emerging.
Kaddour-Cherif is a registered sex offender who was convicted of indecent exposure in November last year, following an incident in March.
At the time, he was given a community order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
He was then subsequently jailed for possessing a knife in June.
Kaddour-Cherif came to the UK legally and is not an asylum seeker, but he is understood to have overstayed his visa and that deportation proceedings had been started.
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He was accidentally freed five days after the wrongful release of convicted sex offender Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford in Essex.
Kebatu is an Ethiopian national who came to the UK illegally before sexually assaulting a child, for which he was jailed.
He has since been recaptured and deported
Who is William Smith, the second prisoner mistakenly released?
Hours after HMP Wandsworth admitted the mistake concerning Kaddour-Cherif, it emerged the Category B men’s prison had also accidentally freed William ‘Billy’ Smith, a 35-year-old fraudster.
The second error by staff at the jail took place on Monday 3 November – the day he was jailed for 45 months for several fraud offences.
He appeared at Croydon Crown Court via video link from HMP Wandsworth, and was then accidentally let go.
The court mistakenly told the prison that his custodial sentence was instead a suspended one.
A correction was sent from the court to the prison, but it went to the wrong person.
It was not received in time to stop him from leaving.
Surrey Police issued an appeal to find Smith, saying he had links to Woking but could be anywhere in the county.
He handed himself back into custody at 10.15am on Thursday 6 November, three days after he was mistakenly released.
In a statement, Surrey Police said: “We are cancelling our appeal to help find wanted 35-year-old William Smith who was released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Monday, 3 November. Smith handed himself in to HMP Wandsworth today.”
HMP Wandsworth back in the spotlight
It is not the first time chaos at the scandal-hit Victorian jail has been laid bare.
The high-profile prisoner escape of Daniel Khalife in September 2023 made the headlines.
The former soldier, later found guilty for spying for Iran, escaped from the London jail by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck.
He was caught on a canal towpath by a plainclothes detective days later.
The prison was put into special measures last year as one of 10 jails issued with an urgent notice to improve since November 2022.
On taking emergency action, chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said the prison was “still reeling” from Khalife’s “very high-profile” escape and security remained a “serious concern”.
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How many prisoners are released by mistake?
Both mistakes follow vows by Mr Lammy that enhanced checks on prisoner releases would be introduced.
The number of these types of errors has risen recently, with 262 instances between March 2024 and March 2025 – a 128% increase on 115 in the previous 12 months.
Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, said mistakes were happening “all the time” and are symptomatic of the chaos within the system.
The Prison Governors Association (PGA) described releases in error as “neither rare nor hidden”.
In a statement, the PGA insisted only 0.5% of prisoners are not released on the correct date, but added: “While that may appear to be a small percentage, in a system managing tens of thousands of releases and transfers each quarter, it does represent a significant operational failure.”
The conditions to “reduce this figure to zero simply do not exist”, the association said, adding it “feels disingenuous to see politicians attempt to extract political gain from a prison system in crisis”.
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Prison system still uses fax machines
This was revealed on Sky News’ new flagship breakfast show – Mornings with Ridge and Frost – by Lord Michael Gove.
Asked by Wilfred Frost whether technology could solve the issue of “pen and paper” wrongful prisoner releases, the former justice secretary said: “That is just one aspect of the way in which our entire prison system needs fundamental reform and change, because of the use of pen and paper, the use of fax machines.”
“Fax machines? That is extraordinary,” reacted Sophy Ridge.
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What has Lammy said?
The justice secretary responded to news of Smith’s return to custody on social media, describing the spike in mistaken releases as “unacceptable”.
He added: “We’re modernising prison systems – replacing paper with digital tools to cut errors.
“We’re working with police to recapture Brahim Kaddour-Cherif.”
