Image source, Met Police/Surrey Police

Police are still trying to find two prisoners who were released by mistake from Wandsworth Prison during the past week.

Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, an Algerian man, and William Smith were mistakenly released on 29 October and 3 November respectively.

It comes just weeks after migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat, was also mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex.

It leaves Justice Secretary David Lammy under fire, after he had promised to put in place extra checks to prevent similar cases after Kebatu's release.

A spokesperson at the Ministry of Justice has this evening said: "The crisis in the prison system this government inherited is such that basic information about individual cases can take unacceptably long to reach Ministers."

We're ending our live coverage now. You can read more in our news story here.

Image source, PA Media

HMP Wandsworth has been in the spotlight before. It was the site of the high-profile escape of prisoner Daniel Khalife, who fled the prison in September 2023 while awaiting trial for spying for Iran.

Khalife - a former soldier - had managed to escape the Category B prison by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery truck.

He became the subject of a 75-hour manhunt that ended with his rearrest in London. Khalife has since been jailed for more than 14 years.

After his escape, an audit found 81 security failings at the prison. It also resulted in "long overdue" upgrades being made to CCTV cameras which had not worked for more than a year, the prison's Independent Monitoring Board said.

It emerged that on the day of Khalife's escape, nearly 40% of prison officers there did not turn up for their shift. However, the Ministry of Justice insisted the prison had been adequately staffed.

HMP Wandsworth was put into special measures last year as one of 10 jails issued with an urgent notice to improve since November 2022.

Commenting on this emergency action, chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said the prison was "still reeling" from Khalife's escape and that security remained a "serious concern".

Image source, House of Commons

Opposition parties have been questioning why Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy didn't directly answer questions at PMQs today about whether an asylum seeker had been released by mistake from prison.

In a statement this evening, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson says that, when Lammy entered the Commons for PMQs, "facts were still emerging about the case".

They add that he "had not been accurately informed of key details including the offender’s immigration status."

"No media story about the individual case was yet in the public domain and it was and remains subject to a live police investigation," they say.

“The Deputy Prime Minister was asked questions about the release of an asylum seeker. As was confirmed after PMQs by the Home Office, the individual was not an asylum seeker."

• For context: Since then, more detail has emerged. The BBC understands that Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, who was mistakenly released on 29 October, was not an asylum seeker, and had instead overstayed on his visitor visa

“The DPM waited until after PMQs and further facts had emerged before making a statement," they add.

As our political correspondent reported earlier, a recent report from the Independent Monitoring Board found a number of failings around staffing at Wandsworth Prison. Here's some more details from that report.

• It found that "the level of staff absence is unacceptable", describing how "a prison holding close to 1,500 men was often being run by fewer than 85 officers"
• To manage the absences, staff were drafted in from other prisons, which "alleviated some pressures in the short term" but, it added, there is little evidence of this having a "long-term beneficial impact"
• Some officers, who had only had nine weeks of training, were "unwilling or incapable of pulling together as a team", the report said
• It added that staff shortages meant "prisoners were frequently denied sufficient time out of their cells" - some were often locked in for 22 hours per day, it said
• The report also details "inhumane" accommodation, stating: "Living conditions lacked decency, as two men were required to share cells designed for single occupancy"

Chris Mason
Political editor

We've heard from the Chair of the Justice Committee, Labour MP Andy Slaughter, who says: “Reports that two prisoners have been ‘released in error’ from HMP Wandsworth are extremely concerning, especially following the high-profile release from HMP Chelmsford last month.

“Events such as this speak to a wider justice system at breaking point. Evidence taken by the Justice Committee has laid bare a crisis-hit prison system, starved of investment over many years which is facing multi-faceted pressures, including overcrowding and under-staffing within a decaying prison estate characterised by chaos and instability.

“The Committee visited HMP Wandsworth as part of its ‘Tackling drugs in prisons’ inquiry and found an institution with multiple failings despite the best efforts of its staff. The report, external published just days ago warned the use of illicit drugs and the trade in them across prisons has reached ‘endemic’ levels.

“While the day to day running of prison security and public safety are paramount, the current spate of releases in error will be repeated until the underlying failures are addressed.”

The Lib Dems are calling for a short Commons recess to be cancelled so that Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy can face MPs over the mistaken release of two prisoners.

The House of Commons begins a short break when it adjourns tonight, and will return on Tuesday next week.

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson says: “After this appalling series of failures, recess must be cancelled so David Lammy can address Parliament tomorrow.

“Two prisoners have been wrongly released from the same jail in a single week - and the Government is seemingly trying to bury the news before recess.

“This is unacceptable. Ministers must face MPs and be held to account for this prison gates fiasco.”

Image source, Metropolitan Police

We're continuing to bring you updates as a manhunt continues for two prisoners who were mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth in separate events - here's a summary of what we know about them.

Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24

• An Algerian national, he had been convicted of indecent exposure relating to an incident in 2024 and was sentenced to an 18 month community order and placed on the sex offenders' register for five years
• In September, he was arrested after failing to comply with sex offender requirements
• The MP for Wandsworth prison's constituency, Tooting, says Kaddour-Cherif "was in custody on a charge of trespass with intent to steal" when he was released

• He was not an asylum seeker, but had entered the UK legally on a visa in 2019. After overstaying that visa by 2020, he was in the initial stages of the deportation process, the BBC understands
• He was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth on 29 October

Image source, Surrey Police

William (Billy) Smith, 35

• Had been sentenced to nearly four years in prison on Monday 3 November after being convicted of multiple fraud offences
• Smith has links to Woking, and is described as a white, bald and clean shaven man, last seen wearing a navy Nike tracksuit and black trainers
• He was released as a result of a clerical error at the court level, when his custodial sentence was mistakenly entered as a suspended sentence the BBC understands

Angus Thompson
Live reporter

I've been speaking to prison officers' union official Phil Hannant, who says the extra checks ordered by David Lammy after the erroneous release of a prisoner last month "clearly" aren't working.

Hannant, from the Prison Officers' Association (POA) and whose remit covers Wandsworth, says after Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford on 24 October, the government brought in a checklist "that duty governors must use with immediate effect".

"Clearly from the news we've just heard yesterday and today, that isn't working," he says.

He adds that exhausted prison staff, who are "running on empty", are "facing immense pressures" from staff shortages and sickness - particularly fuelled by regular assaults.

This pressure, he says, fuels mistakes such as the early release of prisoners.

"POA has been telling HM Prison and Probation Service for years there will be catastrophe," he tells me.

Image source, Metropolitan Police / Surrey Police

It has been a day full of revelations, beginning when Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy stood up in the House of Commons to face the Conservatives' James Cartlidge at 12:00 GMT:

• Cartlidge repeatedly asked Lammy whether any asylum seeker offenders had been mistakenly released from prison recently
• Lammy avoided the question, insisting he had introduced the "toughest ever" checks on prisoner release - as our political editor Chris Mason reported, it seemed as though Cartlidge was preparing a "reveal", but none came
• But shortly after Cartlidge sat down, news emerged of a foreign prisoner released by mistake, which was soon confirmed in a statement from the Metropolitan Police
• The statement said the Met was told on Tuesday that a man was released from HMP Wandsworth by mistake on Wednesday 29 October, and "the prisoner is a 24-year-old Algerian"
• The BBC's Sima Kotecha said he is not an asylum seeker - we later reported he arrived on a visitor visa in 2019, with a "probable over-stayer" case launched in 2020
• Just after 15:00 GMT, we reported his name as Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, who most recently appeared in court in September on a charge of failing to comply with sex offender requirements
• Around an hour later, news of a second prisoner wrongly released from Wandsworth emerged - 35-year-old William Smith, convicted of multiple fraud offences
• The BBC's Daniel Sandford later reported that Smith, who was sentenced while in Wandsworth prison, was released because "of a clerical error at the court level - he was given a custodial sentence but it was entered in the computer system as a suspended sentence"

James Bryant
Reporting from east London

I’ve just been speaking to the neighbours of the east London property linked to Brahim Kaddour-Cherif in recent court documents.

None of them recognised the man in the picture. But three of them spoke about several police visits in the last two days.

Once mid-way through yesterday and twice again today - at around 08:00 GMT and then again at midday.

Now, walking back to the nearest Tube station, and there are six British Transport Police officers stationed at the entrance.

As we've been reporting, HMP Wandsworth has admitted to releasing two prisoners - Brahim Kaddour-Cherif and William Smith - mistakenly in the space of a week.

A little earlier on, we reported how recent government figures show these are not isolated events.

The latest figures show that 262 prisoners in England and Wales were mistakenly released in the year leading up to March 2025, according to the prison service's annual digest.

That's a 128% increase compared to the 115 prisoners released in error in the year ending March 2024.

Of the 262 released by mistake, 233 were from prisons and 29 were released in error by courts.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

The reason Philp was calling on Lammy to return to the Commons tonight is because it is beginning a short recess at the close of business tonight.

So there will be no opportunity for the opposition to table an urgent question on the issue until Tuesday, since MPs are not sitting tomorrow or Friday.

We've just been listening across the House of Commons where shadow home secretary Chris Philp has raised a point of order, calling for Justice Secretary David Lammy to return to the Commons this evening to address the prisoners' mistaken release.

Philp says the police "have no objection" to the information being released "contrary to briefings from the government"

Deputy Speaker Judith Cummins says this "is not a matter for the chair" and refuses Philp's request.

Daniel Sandford
UK correspondent

The BBC understands William Smith was released as a result of a clerical error at the court level.

He was given a custodial sentence but it was entered in the computer system as a suspended sentence.

This was spotted and corrected by the court but the correction was sent to the wrong person.

• You can read more information on Smith in our earlier post

We can now bring you footage, via the Metropolitan Police, of Brahim Kaddour-Cherif's arrest in September.

On 9 September he was arrested after officers confirmed he was wanted on warrant for failing to appear at court; for failing to comply with probation conditions; and for breaching the conditions he was subject to as a result of being on the sex offenders’ register.

Dominic Casciani
Home and legal correspondent

Court records reveal that Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, the Algerian national released in error from prison a week ago, was being held five months ago in a secure immigration removal centre.

This means that there may have been an active Home Office order to deport him from the UK.

Records show that on 23 June he appeared at Croydon Magistrates' Court, accused of handling stolen bank cards in August of last year.

He denied the allegation - and the case was adjourned for a future trial.

Records show the district judge handling the case was told the defendant was being held at Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre, which is near Heathrow Airport in west London.

Removal centres are not prisons. They are generally reserved for people who have been told they will be transported out of the UK.

It's not clear what happened to him next and why he was later being detained at Wandsworth Prison.

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

There have been a series of reports recently into failings at Wandsworth Prison. The most recent one from last month, while noting significant improvements, offers some details of ongoing issues.

It found staff could not provide an accurate number of prisoners. And it said that on average a third of staff were absent of any given day.

The chair of the Independent Monitoring Board, who conducted the review, Matthew Andrews said: "Until the serious staffing issues are properly addressed the prison's efforts to improve further will be severely hampered."

Woking MP Will Forster has called the news that a second inmate was released mistakenly from HMP Wandsworth in recent days "utterly unacceptable".

Surrey Police has announced that William Smith, 35, who has "links to Woking but could be anywhere in Surrey", was released in error on Monday.

Forster, a Liberal Democrat, says he is aware that Smith "is a Woking resident and his offences were predominantly within Woking".

"This is yet another grave mistake from the government. The public deserves a full explanation on how this has happened again."

Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, who represents the Tooting constituency where HMP Wandsworth is located, has published a letter sent to Justice Secretary David Lammy and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

She says that many in the community were "anxious" to hear of Brahim Kaddour-Cherif's release and expects "all levers" to be pulled to secure his return.

Allin-Khan says that Cherif "was in custody on a charge of trespass with an intent to steal" and "has a history of criminality, including sexual offences".

She says this "will only compound the fears felt by many across the community".

And, after the escape of prisoner Daniel Khalife in 2023, the MP asks for reassurances that Wandsworth prison "remains fit for purpose" following "major security failures".

Further to the picture in our previous post, the Metropolitan Police has released a new statement:

"We can confirm that the released prisoner is 24-year-old Brahim Kaddour-Cherif who is an Algerian national. He is also known to use other variations of his name, including Ibrahim.

"He is believed to have links to Tower Hamlets and is also known to frequent the Westminster area.

"We are aware of reporting that Cherif is a registered sex offender and can confirm that is accurate.

"He was convicted in November 2024 of indecent exposure relating to an incident in March that year. He was sentenced to an 18 month community order and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years."

Commander Paul Trevers, who is overseeing the investigation, adds: "It is just over 24 hours since we were informed of Cherif’s release. We launched an immediate manhunt and urgent enquiries have been ongoing since.

"Cherif has had a six-day head start but we are working urgently to close the gap and establish his whereabouts.

"We will continue to use all the means at our disposal but we are also appealing for the public's help to find him. We have seen in the very recent past how important alert members of the public reporting sightings can be.

"To assist with that effort we have released an image of Cherif and bodyworn video footage from an arrest in September this year."

Anyone who sees Cherif is asked not to approach him but to call 999 immediately. Anyone who has other information about his movements should call 101.