Wrongly released sex offender pleads guilty to burglary and knife offence

A convicted sex offender whose accidental release from prison caused a national storm has admitted burglary and carrying a knife.

Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was at the centre of a manhunt in November after he was mistakenly set free from HMP Wandsworth while he was supposed to be held in custody to await a trial.

The Algerian national, who has been overstaying his visa in the UK since 2020, was convicted in 2024 for exposing himself in a London park, making him a convicted sex offender.

On Tuesday, Kaddour-Cherif appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court to plead guilty to burglary after he broke into a garage in Orford Road, Walthamstow, east London, to steal bikes.

On Friday, he appeared at Kingston Crown Court by videolink from HMP Pentonville to plead guilty to carrying a knife in Burntwood Road, Earlswood, south-west London.

The burglary happened on January 6 2024, and the incident with the knife was on November 13 2023.

Judge Simon Heptonstall remanded Kaddour-Cherif back into custody, saying he would be sentenced for both crimes on January 27.

He is also due to be sentenced for missing a hearing at Kingston Crown Court on September 2, at a time when he was on bail.

Kaddour-Cherif’s accidentally release from prison was embarrassing for the Government, coming shortly after another migrant, Hadush Kebatu, had been wrongly freed while serving a prison term for sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

Official data from July last year set out that 262 prisoners had been released in error in the year to March 2025 – a 128% increase on 115 in the previous 12 months.

Kaddour-Cherif, who lives in Whitechapel, east London, had previously denied the knife crime and burglary charges, and was remanded in custody last year by a judge at Snaresbrook Crown Court to await trial.

He was accidentally released from prison on October 29, in a blunder which was discovered on November 4 when the court called the jail to try to set up a videolink for a hearing and it was discovered that he had gone.

Kaddour-Cherif was arrested three days later in Finsbury Park after a tip-off from a member of the public.

His indecent exposure conviction from 2024 had led to an 18-month community order and him being placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years.

He was also detained at an immigration centre in June last year as part of efforts to deport him, but he was swiftly released on immigration bail.