Police manhunt as second foreign prisoner mistakenly released from jail

A manhunt is under way for an Algerian convicted sex offender who was wrongly released from prison last week.

Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was serving a sentence at HMP Wandsworth in south-west London for trespass with intent to steal, but had previously also been convicted for indecent exposure, sources said.

He was freed from the jail, which was put into special measures last year, on October 29, but the mistake was only reported to the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday, the force said.

It comes after migrant Hadush Kebatu was wrongly released from HMP Chelmsford on October 24.

A spokesperson for the Met said: “Shortly after 1pm on Tuesday November 4, the Met was informed by the Prison Service that a prisoner had been released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday October 29.

“The prisoner is a 24-year-old Algerian man.

“Officers are carrying out urgent inquiries in an effort to locate him and return him to custody.”

It is understood Kaddour-Cherif is not an asylum seeker.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said he was “absolutely outraged” and that his officials have been “working through the night to take him back to prison”.

The inmate’s mistaken release last Wednesday came just days after stronger security checks were put in place in prisons and an independent investigation was launched into releases in error following the blunder in Kebatu’s case.

The Epping migrant jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman, which sparked a wave of protests, was accidentally freed from prison instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre last month. He was later traced.

Shortly before news of the latest incident broke, Mr Lammy had been asked in the House of Commons whether any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since Kebatu.

The Deputy Prime Minister, who also serves as Justice Secretary, refused to confirm four times.

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge asked: “I want to ask him a further very important question – can he reassure the House that since Kebatu was released, no other asylum seeking offender has been accidentally let out of prison?”

Mr Lammy refused to confirm – and lambasted the justice system the Government inherited from the Conservatives.

After repeating the question several times, Mr Cartlidge said in a point of order at the conclusion of PMQs: “The Telegraph are reporting that a police manhunt has been launched for a second asylum seeker mistakenly freed from prison.

“The question is, can (the Speaker) advise on how I can ask the Justice Secretary whether he was aware of this when I asked him about it repeatedly in Prime Minister’s Questions.”

He found out about the error at HMP Wandsworth overnight.

But he declined to answer repeated questions at PMQs about whether any further migrants were released mistakenly because information was still emerging about the “complicated” case involving multiple agencies, sources said.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Lammy said: “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.”

According to Government figures published in July, 262 prisoners were released in error in the year to March 2025 – a 128% increase on 115 in the previous 12 months.

Reacting to the latest incident, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association Mark Fairhurst told the PA news agency he wants to get reassurances from leaders of the Prison Service that there are robust procedures in place to prevent this happening.

“This should not happen, end of,” he said.

“This is on the leaders of the service, not the staff on the front line, they just follow processes.”

Tory shadow home secretary Chris Philp also described the mistaken release as “shocking” and said it “makes a mockery” of Mr Lammy’s claim at PMQs to have introduced the “strongest ever checks” on releases.

In the fallout from Kebatu’s accidental release, chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said mistakes are happening “all the time” and are symptomatic of the chaos within the system.