Mistakenly freed sex offender jailed again for biting police officers
A convicted sex offender who previously sparked a national manhunt after being mistakenly released from prison has been jailed for 26 weeks for punching and biting two police officers.
Algerian asylum seeker Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, attracted national attention last November after he was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth. The blunder highlighted an alarming rise in the accidental release of prisoners, sparking a government crisis and prompting pledges to introduce tighter security measures.
At the time of his release, Kaddour-Cherif was facing three active criminal cases and was under investigation for a fourth despite a judge’s detention order.
At Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on Friday, Kaddour-Cherif was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison for attacking two police officers at Blackhorse Road Underground station in east London on July 20.
Pc Bradley Glynn was off duty on the train when he noticed Kaddour-Cherif taking a mobile phone from a tube passenger who had fallen asleep.
The police officer took the handset from Kaddour-Cherif’s pocket, returned it to its owner, and then ordered him to leave the train in case he was a thief.
Prosecutor Kevin Kendridge said Pc Glynn saw Kaddour-Cherif get off the train but stand near the doors on the platform, suggesting he was planning to get back on the train.
“By shouting the word ‘thief’ to attract attention, he hoped the defendant would disappear,” Mr Kendridge said.
“(Kaddour-Cherif) punched the defendant on the left side of his head with his closed fist, and the off-duty officer responded to the defendant.”
The court heard that Pc Jason Norton, who was on duty at the station, joined the fray to defend Mr Glynn when Kaddour-Cherif threw several punches.
“Together they tried to gain control of the defendant but he managed to punch Pc Glynn again and bite him,” the prosecutor said.
“He slammed PC Norton against the wall and buried his face in PC Norton’s arm, at which point the officer shouted ‘don’t bite me’.”
As the court was shown footage of bite marks left on one of the officer’s arms, Pc Norton told the court he was distressed and feared he might have contracted an illness.
At a hearing in early January, Kaddour-Cherif pleaded guilty to two charges of assaulting an emergency worker, but insisted he did not know at the time that the two men were police officers.
Judge Elizabeth Robb sentenced Kaddour-Cherif to 26 weeks in prison and also ordered him to pay £154 compensation to the police officers he assaulted.
“In both cases it was a serious attack, sustained and quite nasty,” he said.
Appearing via video link from HMP Pentonville, Kaddour-Cherif began ranting about the nature of his crimes and accused his own lawyer of failing to read a statement he had prepared.
“How could I fight two guys? It was two on one. I’m not that strong,” he said. “They’re lying.”
Kaddur-Sharif also claimed that he was attacked and stabbed in prison.
Kaddour-Cherif has been overstaying his visa in the UK since 2020 and has a number of criminal convictions in the past, including an incident of assaulting an emergency worker.
He became a registered sex offender after being found guilty of exposing himself in a London park in November 2024.
Kaddour-Cherif was accidentally released from prison on October 29, 2025, after he was found not guilty of violating the requirements of the sex offender registry.
Prison officials let him go without realizing he needed to be held in custody awaiting a hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court on charges of robbing a garage in Orford Road, Walthamstow, east London, with the intention of stealing a bike on January 6, 2024.
The mistake was only revealed when court officials tried to arrange a prison video link for a hearing in early November last year, only to be told he was gone.
At the time of his release, Kaddour-Cherif was awaiting trial for possessing a knife on Burntwood Road in Earlswood, south-west London, on November 13, 2023, and had recently been charged with handling stolen goods relating to two women’s bank cards.
Kaddour-Cherif was re-arrested by Metropolitan Police officers near Finsbury Park on 7 November 2025, following a tip-off from a member of the public.
Kaddour-Cherif, of Whitechapel, east London, pleaded guilty to robbery and stabbing after being taken into custody and failing to surrender to court, and was sentenced to 188 days in prison on Tuesday this week.
The court at Highbury was told Kaddour-Cherif had already served that sentence but was currently in Home Office custody in prison and would be questioned again about his asylum claim.
Kaddour-Cherif was previously detained by immigration officers last June due to an increase in his crimes, but was quickly released from the detention center on bail.
He has denied the stolen goods charges and will stand trial at Croydon Magistrates’ Court next month.
