Nabiha Ahmed
Live reporter

Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was today arrested after being mistakenly released from Wandsworth prison on 29 October.

Footage shows the moment he was apprehended in north London.

An eyewitness told the BBC Kaddour-Cherif shouted "it's not my fault" and kicked a police van as he was being arrested in north London.

Another local said he had called the police after seeing Kaddour-Cherif, whom he recognised from the news.

William "Billy" Smith - the second prisoner accidentally freed this week - handed himself into HMP Wandsworth yesterday.

After the arrest, Justice Secretary David Lammy said that he's determined to fix a prison system "in crisis", but the shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick is demanding "answers and immediate action".

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch warns criminals view the UK as a "soft touch", as the Lib Dems say Lammy has "dodged scrunity" over the mistaken releases.

Tonight, we've also learnt that there are at least four prisoners released in error who are still at large, though details remain scarce.

Reacting to the news this evening, Jenrick says: "The chaos continues."

We are now bringing our live coverage to an end - but our colleagues will keep you up to date in our news story.

Image source, Reuters

The Lib Dems say Lammy has "dodged scrutiny in parliament" over his handling of Kaddour-Cherif's mistaken release.

The party's attorney general spokesperson Ben Maguire tells BBC Radio 5 Live that he has been "very critical" of the justice secretary, who has handled this "very poorly".

He says he wants "try to resolve this mess", but he's unable to "ask David Lammy these legitimate questions because he has refused to come before parliament".

Maguire adds that he would like to know what "urgent measures" Lammy would implement.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

We've been asking today whether other prisoners, accidentally released, were still unaccounted for.

Tonight - an update.

There at least four lives cases. They are people who were accidentally released in the 12 months to the end of March 2025.

We don't know at the moment what they were in prison for - but we are asking the government.

The arrest of Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif brings to an end the search for three prisoners who all were all released by mistake over the last two weeks.

Kaddour-Cherif, who was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth on 29 October, was spotted by a member of the public in the Finsbury Park area of north London this morning.

He was found not far from where Hadush Kebatu, the sex offender and asylum seeker mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford, was re-arrested on 26 October after a member of the public called the police.

William "Billy" Smith, who was accidentally freed from Wandsworth on Monday, handed himself in yesterday.

Image source, PA

It's not been a great few days, weeks, months or really even years for HMP Wandsworth, the Victorian-era prison in the spotlight after two prisoners were accidentally released.

A recent report found the prison, built in 1851, had only made slow improvements following years of terrible conditions and a "catastrophic" inspection in 2024, which found severe overcrowding, vermin and rising violence.

The most recent report, published last month, still found unacceptable levels of staff absence - an average of one third absent every day - "inhumane" accommodation for prisoners and inadequately trained staff.

The prison also made headlines in 2023 after former British soldier Daniel Khalife escaped by clinging to the underside of a lorry.

BBC correspondent Sima Kotecha has described the prison as "by far" the worst she has been to, recalling the smell of urine from gutters lining the cells and inmate overcrowding she witnessed during a visit a few years ago.

We're now able to bring you some footage from Sky News which shows the moment mistakenly-released prisoner Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was arrested.

In the video, police tell a man wearing a grey hoodie - who has since been identified as Kaddour-Cherif - that he is going to be placed under arrest.

"You look identical to the person released from custody," the officer says.

"I'm not Brahim, bro," Kaddour-Cherif responds.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch says criminals like Kaddour-Cherif feel that the UK is a "soft touch".

Speaking to reporters, she says: "These people are making a mockery of our justice system."

"They are laughing at us," she adds, suggesting that "what the Labour government needs to do is show that it will enforce our laws."

"If you break the law, you are locked up, and if you are a foreign criminal, you should be deported immediately," she says.

Badenoch says Labour need to take responsibility.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Justice Secretary David Lammy both blame the strain on the prison system on "failures" under the previous Conservative government.

In response, the Tory leader asks: "How is it that people being accidentally released today are the fault of the government that left well over a year ago?"

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

I understand Kaddour-Cherif is currently in police custody.

The usual drill would be for him to be taken by the prison service to a local prison - this is what we would expect to happen.

But he is also set to be questioned by officers about the suspected assault of an emergency worker.

This could mean he’s in police custody for longer.

Image source, PA Wire

A man who says he called the police about wrongly released Brahim Kaddour-Cherif tells the PA news agency that he is "glad" he is in custody.

Algerian Nadjib Mekdhia, who is homeless but stays in the Finsbury Park area of north London, claims he recognised Kaddour-Cherif after seeing his picture in a paper.

He says he spotted him "hanging around" as he was walking past an Algerian cafe on Blackstock Road on Friday morning.

Mekdhia asked a member of the public to use their phone to call 999. He says, "straight away I called the police. The police vans came quickly."

Theo Whyte
Reporting from Blackstock Road, Islington

I've been speaking to Deelo Morgenegg at the French Market cafe on Blackstock Road, where Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was arrested earlier today.

He tells me there was an "altercation" between Cherif and a local who Deelo thinks may have recognised the mistakenly released prisoner.

The police then came over and questioned him, he tells me.

"Things started to escalate and then eventually they handcuffed him. It got very heated and people started to congregate around the store," Deelo says.

He recalls Kaddour-Cherif repeatedly shouting "it's not my fault" before he was placed in the back of a police van.

Image source, Deelo Morgenegg/BBC

The numbers behind prison releasespublished at 14:10 GMT 7 November

14:10 GMT 7 November

By Daniel Wainwright, Gerry Georgieva and Nicholas Barrett

Recent cases of mistaken prisoner releases, including Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, have put a fresh spotlight on the demands facing the justice system.

Prison overcrowding, staffing levels and government funding have all been called into question.

There were 262 prisoners accidentally released, external in the 12 months to March 2025, compared with 115 the previous year, according to an analysis from BBC Verify.

The majority of accidental releases were from a prison itself. Pentonville Prison in London released the most in 2024-25 - 16, up from six the year before.

At the end of June 2025, there were a total of 36,627 people working in prison service establishments across England and Wales.

That's 787 fewer people than a year ago, but well above the staff numbers in previous years. However staff turnover is an ongoing issue.

In the year to June, nearly 13% of staff left the prison service, almost twice the 7.1% turnover rate across the Civil Service, external, external.

• Read the full analysis from BBC Verify here

If you're just joining our live coverage, 24-year-old Algerian Brahim Kaddour-Cherif has been arrested.

Here's how we got here:

29 October: Kaddour-Cherif is mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth.

13:00 on 4 November: Six days later, the Prison Service informs the Metropolitan Police that a prisoner had been released in error on 29 October.

Overnight into 5 November: Justice Secretary David Lammy is informed about the accidental release.

Around 11:45 on 5 November: The Conservatives reportedly find out that a wrongly released prisoner is at large.

12:00 on 5 November: Lammy repeatedly refuses to answer when asked by shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge whether any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since the high-profile case of an Epping sex offender last month.

12:43 on 5 November: Cartlidge tells the House of Commons that a second imprisoned migrant had been mistakenly freed - Lammy declined to respond.

13:41 on 5 November: Lammy releases a statement saying he is "outraged and appalled by the foreign criminal wanted by the police" and promises that an "urgent manhunt" is under way.

16:06 on 5 November: Surrey Police launch a manhunt after it was made aware of a second prisoner, William Smith, being released by mistake on Monday.

16:41 on 5 November: The Metropolitan Police confirm a search is under way for Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif.

6 November: William Smith hands himself in to HMP Wandsworth.

11:30 on 7 November: Kaddour-Cherif is arrested in north London, police say.

• Mistakenly released prisoner Brahim Kaddour-Cherif has been arrested for being unlawfully at large on Blackstock Road in Islington, north London
• He was detained at 11:30 GMT after a member of the public called the police to report a sighting of a man they believed to be the 24-year-old Algerian
• Kaddour-Cherif had been released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday, 29 October
• He had been convicted in November of indecent exposure relating to an incident in March that year, police said

• Kaddour-Cherif is the second mistakenly released prisoner to return to custody in as many days - William "Billy" Smith handed himself into HMP Wandsworth on Thursday

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick says "Cherif is just the tip of the iceberg".

Reacting to Brahim Kaddour-Cherif's arrest, he says: "David Lammy won’t say how many prisoners have been mistakenly released this year or how many of the 262 accidentally released last year are still at large.

"We need answers and immediate action - because the British people are being put at risk.”

Image source, PA Media

We can now bring you a statement from Justice Secretary David Lammy:

"I can confirm Brahim Kaddour-Cherif has been recaptured and is back in custody.

"My thanks are with the police and staff at HMPPS who have been working around the clock.

"We inherited a prison system in crisis and I'm appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing.

"I’m determined to grip this problem, but there is a mountain to climb which cannot be done overnight.

"That is why I have ordered new tough release checks, commissioned an independent investigation into systemic failures, and begun overhauling archaic paper-based systems still used in some prisons."

Image source, Surrey Police

The recapture of Brahim Kaddour-Cherif comes a day after another mistakenly released prisoner handed himself in.

On Thursday, Surrey Police said William "Billy" Smith, who was accidentally freed from HMP Wandsworth on Monday, is back in custody.

Sima Kotecha
Senior UK correspondent

Brahim Kaddour-Cherif has been found - just a three minute walk from where Hadush Kebatu, the sex offender and asylum seeker, was re-arrested.

Kaddour-Cherif was spotted by a member of the public in Blackstock Road, Islington, in north London just before 11.30am.

The Metropolitan Police says officers responded immediately and he was arrested.

He was arrested for being unlawfully at large. He was also arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, prior to him being sighted this morning.

We can now bring you more from the Metropolitan Police. In a statement they say:

“At 11:23hrs on Friday, 7 November a call was received from a member of the public reporting a sighting of a man they believed to be Brahim Kaddour Cherif in the vicinity of Capital City College on Blackstock Road in Islington.

“Cherif was released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday, 29 October. The Met was informed on the afternoon of Tuesday, 4 November and a manhunt was launched.

“The operation has involved the deployment of significant resources including local officers and also officers from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command.

"Officers responded immediately and at 11:30hrs detained a man matching Cherif’s description.

“His identity was confirmed and he was arrested for being unlawfully at large. He was also arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker in relation to a previous incident.

“He has been taken into police custody. The Prison Service has been informed.”

Image source, Met Police

Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, an Algerian man, who is a sex offender, was let out of Wandsworth Prison by mistake on 29 October.

Kaddour-Cherif, 24, had been convicted in November 2024 of indecent exposure relating to an incident in March that year, police said. He was sentenced to an 18-month community order and placed on the sex offenders' register for five years, the Met added.

He is understood to have entered the UK legally on a visit visa in 2019 but overstayed his visa, with a "probable over-stayer" case created in 2020.