Four more prisoners are at large after being released from custody in error as pressure grows on the justice secretary over his handling of the chaos in Britain’s jails.
Cabinet ministers have accused David Lammy of incompetence, as it emerged that yet more prisoners had been accidentally released in recent weeks.
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The issue was thrust into the spotlight in October after prison officers wrongly released Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian migrant whose conviction for child sexual abuse offences near an asylum hotel in Epping, Essex, prompted disorder over the summer.
The latest four prisoners have yet to be identified and details have not been given on which jails they were released from, but the news came after manhunts for three other prisoners over the past two weeks.
The figure for accidental releases more than doubled to 262 in the year to March, with the Labour government’s early release scheme believed to have contributed to the growing problem.
Pressure is mounting on Lammy over his handling of the situation after he repeatedly refused to say at prime minister’s questions last week whether more prisoners had been released by mistake.
The Observer understands that one sex offender released in error walked free despite undergoing additional, more stringent checks on releases that Lammy announced on 27 October to fix the problem.
The releases have highlighted weaknesses in communication between courts, jails and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), as well as poor staffing numbers, high attrition rates and a lack of training in overcrowded prisons rife with drugs and violence.
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was released two days after these checks were announced. He was recaptured on Friday, eight days after being accidentally freed from Wandsworth prison, south London.
Kaddour-Cherif and a second man, William Smith – usually known as Billy – were both returned to custody at Wandsworth amid growing uproar over a massive increase in prisoners being released in error that has led to calls for Lammy’s resignation. Kaddour-Cherif, who arrived in the UK from Algeria in 2019 on a visitor’s visa, was spotted by a member of the public in Islington, north London and arrested by the Metropolitan police for being unlawfully at large at about 11.30am on Friday. As officers put him into a police van, he shouted: “It’s not my fucking fault… the judge, he told me you are released on bail.”
The case of Kaddour-Cherif, whom the Home Office had identified as a visa overstayer by February 2020, exemplifies the systemic failings in the justice system.
He appeared in court in September 2023, when he was charged with “burglary with intent to steal” from the Royal Society of Literature. Over the following two years, he appeared before at least eight courts for more than 40 hearings, dealing with offences including possession of a knife, entering a property with intent to steal, assaulting an emergency worker, theft of debit cards and indecent exposure.
He was placed in Colnbrook immigration removal centre (IRC) in west London, from where he was due to be deported.
Although about 40% of offenders taken to IRCs are ultimately deported, an offence such as handling stolen goods should not normally be pursued where the defendant is awaiting deportation, said one senior civil servant with knowledge of such cases.In October, Kaddour-Cherif was a prisoner at HMP Pentonville in Islington. After appearing in court, he was returned not to Pentonville but to Wandsworth. He appears to have been lost in the system and a warrant for his arrest was issued by Snaresbrook crown court in east London, although this document does not seem to have reached Wandsworth.
The Observer understands that all Lammy’s new checks, including the need for a duty governor’s sign-off, were completed before Kaddour-Cherif was released on 29 October.
Sources within the MoJ have indicated that they believe this sort of error has become far more likely because of the substantial courts backlog, which hit a record high of almost 80,000 cases this year, and the pressure court staff are under to handle more cases.
The MoJ would not confirm details of the latest prisoners released but said “the vast majority of offenders released by mistake are quickly brought back to prison”. An investigation is under way.
In a statement after Kaddour-Cherif had been apprehended, Lammy announced more “tough” checks and said there was a “mountain to climb” in terms of addressing the systemic issues. He added: “We inherited a prison system in crisis and I’m appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing. “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.”
Photograph by In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images