Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
It’s the second and third time, this has happened in recent weeks.
According to London’s Metropolitan Police, England’s prison service notified them on Tuesday that 24-year-old Brahim Kaddour Cherif had been “released in error” from Wandsworth Prison in southwest London on October 29.
Cherif, an Algerian national and registered sex offender, had been convicted of indecent exposure last year. He was serving an 18-month community order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.
The BBC reported that Cherif most recently appeared in court in September for breaching the conditions of that order.
Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Trevers, leading the investigation, said: “Cherif has had a six-day head start but we are working urgently to close the gap and establish his whereabouts.”
Second release in days
In a separate case, Surrey Police confirmed that 35-year-old William “Billy” Smith was also mistakenly released from Wandsworth Prison on Monday.
Smith had just received a 45-month sentence for multiple fraud offences when the error occurred.
The two incidents mark the second and third wrongful releases in less than two weeks, both from the same facility.
Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said he was “absolutely outraged and appalled” by the blunder. “The Metropolitan police is leading an urgent manhunt, and my officials have been working through the night to take him back to prison,” he told the BBC.
Government under pressure
Lammy added that he had ordered an independent investigation, led by Dame Lynne Owens, to uncover what went wrong.
“Victims deserve better and the public deserve answers,” he said according to The Guardian, noting that new measures were already being introduced to tighten prison release procedures.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the incident as “utterly unacceptable.”
According to The Guardian, the spokesperson said that “the system needs to be reformed and the appropriate checks need to be in place to stop this type of thing from ever happening.”
Previous blunders
Just last week, the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu — an Ethiopian man convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl — triggered a two-day manhunt before his deportation.
Authorities opted to pay him the equivalent of about $600 to board a flight rather than reopening legal proceedings.
The Telegraph reported last month that from March 2024 to March 2025, 262 prisoners were wrongly released in England and Wales — more than double the 115 recorded during the previous year.
The Ministry of Justice has launched a formal review into the issue as public confidence in the prison system continues to erode.
Sources: BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Surrey Police, London’s Metropolitan Police
This article is made and published by Jens Asbjørn Bogen, who may have used AI in the preparation
