Two of four on-the-run prisoners ‘mistakenly released in 2024’
According to reports, two of the four escaped prisoners were accidentally released in 2024.
The government is under increasing pressure as details emerge; It was revealed that two other escaped prisoners were released by mistake in June this year.
The mistaken release of four criminals marks just a few of the many significant cases in which prisoners have been mistakenly released.
Just a day earlier, a sex offender who was mistakenly released was finally arrested after a nine-day manhunt. On Friday, Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was captured after he was spotted by a member of the public in Islington, north London.
The Algerian national, who was convicted of theft and had previous convictions for indecent exposure, was serving a sentence at HMP Wandsworth in south-west London but was mistakenly released on October 29.
Kaddour-Cherif’s release has piled pressure on justice minister and deputy prime minister David Lammy, who has faced criticism for how he handled the prisoner’s mistaken release.
Mr Lammy was criticized for his decision not to address the mistake, despite being briefed on it on Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions and being repeatedly asked about the accidental release of prisons.
Following his arrest, the 24-year-old admitted he had “a mountain to climb” to tackle the prison system crisis.
“That’s why I ordered strict new release controls, launched an independent investigation into systemic failures and started overhauling the old paper-based systems still used in some prisons,” the justice secretary said in a statement.
Just a day earlier, another prisoner who was wrongfully released, con artist Billy Smith, 35, surrendered on Thursday.
And now the BBC has reported details of four other prisoners still at large, in revelations that emerged just hours after Kaddour-Cherif’s arrest.
In response to the reports, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: Independent: “The vast majority of wrongfully released criminals are brought back to prison quickly, and we will do everything we can to work with the police to capture the few who are still in the community. These cases further highlight the scale of the crisis we have inherited in our prisons. This will not be solved overnight, but we are using every tool possible to tackle these mistakes.”
Following Kaddour-Cherif’s arrest, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “The British public should not be the ones catching fugitive criminals. This is chaos, incompetence and complete weakness and puts people’s safety at risk.”
And shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said the unnamed prisoners exposed the “incompetence of this government”.
“It should not be left to journalists to uncover the truth. [Justice Secretary] “David Lammy must finally reveal how many prisoners were accidentally released and how many are still at large.”
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Jess Brown-Fuller said the situation was “a disgrace and an all-encompassing situation” and called for Parliament to be called from prorogation.
“There should be no need for the media to inform the public about the release of prisoners after they were accidentally released,” he said.
“The situation of the government and the minister of justice is serious. The public deserves a full and frank explanation and a rapid investigation that will prevent this from happening.
“Every resource should go to finding these prisoners and warning the public. The Minister of Justice should respond to MPs at the first opportunity by recalling Parliament.”
