Labour’s promise to tighten prisoner launch checks after migrant intercourse offender scandal lies in tatters after Wandsworth releases two extra criminals by mistake
David Lammy’s promise to tighten prisoner-release checks was in tatters last night as another convict awaiting deportation was wrongly let out of jail.
Algerian immigration offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was released from HMP Wandsworth in south-west London by mistake last week and was still on the run last night.
The 24-year-old was serving time for trespass with intent to steal but has previously been prosecuted for indecent exposure. Police were not informed of the error for six days.
The bungle came just two days after Justice Secretary Mr Lammy promised MPs he had introduced the ‘strongest ever checks’ on prisoner releases following a furore over migrant sex attacker Hadush Kebatu being mistakenly freed from HMP Chelmsford in Essex last month.
In another shocking error, a British national was freed from Wandsworth on Monday, the same day he was sentenced for a series of frauds.
Instead of starting his 45-month sentence, William ‘Billy’ Smith was allowed to walk out of prison after the wrong punishment was logged by the courts, which are also overseen by Mr Lammy.
Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said last night: ‘Calamity Lammy is presiding over a clown show.
It comes just days after Hedush Kebatu (pictured) was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre
Algerian migrant Brahim Kaddour-Cherif (pictured) has been at large after being accidentally freed from HMP Wandsworth on October 29
‘It’s been one farce after another under him. There’s never been a better time to be a criminal.
‘He promised the ‘strongest ever checks’ but we’ve had two shambolic releases in the same week.’
Kaddour-Cherif came to Britain legally on a visa in 2019 but it expired months later and he has since been here as an ‘overstayer’, it is understood. The Home Office flagged his immigration records as an overstayer on February 6, 2020, sources said, meaning that since then he has been in Britain illegally.
It is unclear why no further action was taken against him when he came into contact with police and the courts on numerous occasions in recent years.
Kaddour-Cherif is in the initial stages of the deportation process, it is understood.
Mr Lammy said he was ‘absolutely outraged and appalled’ by the
latest error and blamed the Tories for the ‘failing’ system that Labour ‘inherited’. Last week he said prisoner release processes had been made ‘more robust’ and prison governors had been instructed to fill in a ‘clear checklist’ before letting out any offenders.
‘These are the strongest release checks that have ever been in place. They will apply to every release from custody and are effective immediately,’ he said.
Kaddour-Cherif was let out in error just 48 hours later.
He had been serving time for a break-in London in September 2023. He also has a previous sexual offence conviction for exposing himself to a woman in March 2024 in Walthamstow, east London – not far from his then-home address in Tower Hamlets. Kaddour-Cherif has also previously been convicted of possessing a knife, assaulting an emergency services worker and another count of burglary.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘Cherif has had a six-day head start but we are working urgently to close the gap and establish his whereabouts.’
In the other new case, Surrey Police announced a manhunt for Smith, 35, who has ‘links to Woking but could be anywhere in Surrey’.
British national William Smith (pictured), who goes by Billy, was mistakenly freed from the scandal-hit prison on Monday
He was wrongly released from Wandsworth after court staff logged in a computer system that he had been given a suspended sentence when in fact he had been handed immediate custody, sources said.
An attempt was made to correct the gaffe but it was sent to the wrong person at the jail, and by the time the alarm was raised, Smith had been set free.
The blunders are the latest to hit HMP Wandsworth, where former soldier Daniel Khalife mounted a high-profile escape by hiding underneath a departing delivery lorry. He was later sentenced to more than 14 years’ imprisonment for spying for Iran.
Last month Ethiopian small-boat migrant Kebatu, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman, was freed in error before being arrested in north London three days later.
His offences sparked protests outside the Epping asylum seeker hotel where he was staying.
Kebatu was finally deported last Tuesday and was paid £500 in taxpayers’ money to leave after threatening to disrupt his removal.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: ‘Another dangerous criminal is on the loose thanks to Labour. What a total farce.’
