Authorities are currently engaged in manhunts for two individuals who were erroneously released from Wandsworth prison in London during separate incidents this past week.
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a 24-year-old Algerian national, was released due to an error last Wednesday.
The second individual, William Smith, 35, was incarcerated on Monday for fraud but was subsequently released later that same day.
This follows the inadvertent release of Hadush Kebatu, a migrant sex offender, from HMP Chelmsford last month.
Here’s what we currently know about these incidents.
Details regarding the circumstances surrounding Kaddour-Cherif’s erroneous release remain limited at this stage.
The Metropolitan Police were reportedly not informed of the error for nearly a week, and the reason for this delay remains unclear.
According to multiple prison sources, the release process is intricate and involves a significant amount of bureaucracy, which can occasionally lead to errors, including miscalculations of time served.
In Smith’s case, the BBC understands that his release stemmed from a clerical error at the court level.
Although he received a custodial sentence, it was incorrectly entered into the computer system as a suspended sentence.
The court identified and rectified this error, but the correction was unfortunately sent to the wrong recipient.
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif is a 24-year-old Algerian man.
Police believe he has connections to the Tower Hamlets area and is also known to frequent Westminster.
Reports indicate that Kaddour-Cherif initially entered the UK legally on a visitor’s visa but has since overstayed his permitted stay and was in the initial stages of deportation proceedings. He was not an asylum seeker.
Surrey Police have confirmed that William Smith, also known as Billy, was released on Monday.
He received a 45-month sentence for multiple fraud offenses at Croydon Crown Court on Monday, appearing via a live video link from HMP Wandsworth.
Police describe Smith as a white male, bald, and clean-shaven.
He was last seen wearing a navy long-sleeved jumper with a white Nike logo, navy blue tracksuit bottoms with a white Nike logo on the left pocket, and black trainers.
Authorities state that Smith has links to Woking but could be anywhere in Surrey.
During Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, standing in for Sir Keir Starmer, faced repeated questioning from shadow justice secretary James Cartlidge regarding whether any additional asylum seekers who were offenders had been accidentally released from prison since the mistaken release of Epping sex offender Hadush Kebatu last month.
Lammy consistently declined to provide a direct answer, but it emerged in the media towards the end of the session that a prisoner had been mistakenly released. This individual was later identified as Kaddour-Cherif.
The BBC understands that Lammy was aware of the incident prior to PMQs, having been informed overnight, but he was uncertain whether the individual was an asylum seeker.
Reports suggest that the Conservatives were notified of the mistaken release approximately 15 minutes before PMQs commenced.
While he did not directly address the case during PMQs, Lammy later stated that he was “absolutely outraged” and that his officials had been “working through the night to take [Kaddour-Cherif] back to prison.”
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp described the situation as “shocking” and asserted that “once again, the Labour government has mistakenly allowed a foreign criminal to be released from prison.”
He further stated that Lammy’s appearance at PMQs was “nothing short of disgraceful,” accusing him of being “dishonest” with the public and parliament, and called for him to return to the Commons to address questions.
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman characterized the latest error as “unacceptable” and stated that it would be subject to investigation.
The Liberal Democrats’ justice spokesperson, Jess Brown-Fuller, is urging Lammy to return to the Commons to explain “why he failed to answer” questions regarding whether another prisoner had been mistakenly released during PMQs.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has labeled the incident a “farce.” His deputy, Richard Tice, questioned Lammy’s knowledge during PMQs and suggested that deliberately withholding information from the Commons would be “at least very poor form.”
Rosena Allin-Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting, where the prison is located, stated: “Local residents will quite rightly be deeply concerned. We urgently need answers from the government and Ministry of Justice as to how this was allowed to happen.”
The MP for Woking has conveyed to BBC Radio Surrey that it is “completely unacceptable” that another prisoner, with links to the area, has been accidentally released from HMP Wandsworth.
Lib Dem Will Forster, MP for Woking, said it was “completely unacceptable” that William Smith had been released accidentally.
“It’s utterly unacceptable that my constituents in Woking are going to be worried about their safety due to the government wrongly releasing three prisoners in a matter of a week,” he said.
Wandsworth Prison is a Victorian-era facility situated in south London.
Constructed in 1851, the complex was initially designed to accommodate fewer than 1,000 prisoners.
An August 2024 report by the prison’s independent monitoring board revealed that inmate numbers in the “cramped, squalid” prison had risen to 1,513.
The report stated that “Wings were chaotic and staff across most units were unable to confirm where all prisoners were during the working day.”
The board further noted that it was unable to conduct prisoner roll checks due to staff’s inability to provide accurate numbers and that a third of officers were unavailable for operational duty on any given day due to sickness, restricted duties, or training.
In April, the HM Inspectorate of Prisons observed that the population had been reduced by 150 and that other “limited and fragile” improvements had been implemented.
In 2023, the prison gained notoriety after former British soldier Daniel Khalife escaped by clinging to the underside of a lorry.
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When the chief inspector of Scotland’s prisons visited Glenochil in February, the 668-capacity jail was holding 770 inmates.
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The early release scheme was launched in September 2024 as an emergency measure to tackle overcrowding.