There have been no confirmed sightings of terror suspect Daniel Khalife since his escape from Wandsworth prison on Wednesday, police say
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, says it is "perhaps a testament to Daniel Khalife's ingenuity" that he has not been spotted
Police have revealed the lorry Khalife used to escape left HMP Wandsworth at 07:32 on Wednesday - he was reported missing 18 minutes later
The ex-soldier is accused of trying to gather information for Iran, it can now be reported
The 21-year-old is charged with terror offences including "collecting information which might be useful to an enemy"
He is also alleged to have left fake bombs at a military base while serving in the Army and was due to stand trial in November
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, who has announced a series of reviews into the escape, told MPs Khalife will be found
Image source, House of CommonsJustice Secretary Alex Chalk is now giving a statement on prison escapee Daniel Khalife in the House of Commons.
Stay with us for updates - and press play above to watch his comments.
Details remain scant about the escape of Daniel Abed Khalife from Wandsworth prison, however we are able to piece together some information. Here's what we know so far:
Image source, .As we've reported, prison escapes in England and Wales are now rare compared to the 1990s and early 2000s.
An escape is defined as "breaching the secure perimeter of a closed prison, or if during prison staff escort, overcome the control of escorting staff and leave the escort, the van or the building (hospital etc)".
This means the figures do not include those who abscond from an open prison., external
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is due to make a statement in the House of Commons shortly on prison escapee Daniel Khalife.
There are questions over how terror suspect Khalife, 21, was able to escape prison on Wednesday and why he was being held in a category B prison rather than a high-security category A prison.
We'll bring you updates from that statement here, and you will be able to watch above by clicking the play button.
Mark Easton
Home editor
Prisons in England and Wales are generally overcrowded, violent, often under-staffed and dilapidated.
Roughly two-thirds of prisons are categorised as crowded, meaning some cells contain more prisoners than their intended capacity. Assault incidents have risen markedly in the last twenty years.
In 2000 there were fewer than 10,000. The most recent figures report more than 20,000 – although this is down on the peak of 34,000 in 2018.
Figures for the year to September 2022 show that serious assaults were up 21% compared with the previous 12 months.
There is a backlog of maintenance work that will cost around £1bn to fix. An auditor’s report in 2020 found that 41% of the 120 prisons in England and Wales needed major repairs or replacement by this year “with 2% of prisons running a serious risk of ‘imminent breakdown’”.
We've been hearing from former officers about their experiences of working in prisons.
Douglas, not his real name, is an ex-prison officer in London and he told 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell, “I’m surprised this [escape] hasn’t happened before."
Douglas described prison officers as a “Cinderella service - the service that is vital to society, but totally ignored”.
“Yesterday’s event is classic gate staff. You’ve got one trained prison officer on the gates and the rest will be operational support grades - [all of whom are] locally recruited trained staff who wear uniform similar to a prison officer,” he added.
“[Gate staff] don’t have the same depth of training [as prison officers].”
He explained that a support officer may have escorted the vehicle to the kitchens - of which are “totally civilianized now”.
He says working in the kitchen has “always been the best working party to get on because you spend so much time out [of] your cell and eat as much food as you want”.
The BBC's Simon Jones is outside Wandsworth prison
Need a quick update on how Daniel Abed Khalife escaped, and what we know so far?
Watch the video above for all the details.
Image source, Getty ImagesSince Khalife's escape from Wandsworth prison was reported yesterday, many have asked why he was not based at Belmarsh prison - a high security, category A prison.
But what do we know about HMP Belmarsh?
The south-east London prison is often used in high-profile national security cases.
Around 900 prisoners are accommodated at Belmarsh, across four main units made up of single, double and triple cells, according to the government website., external
Some of its current inmates include Louis De Zoysa, who was found guilty of murdering an on-duty Met Police sergeant Matiu Ratana.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is also one of the prison's current inmates, he has been there since 2019 and got married at the high security prison last year.
Mark Easton
Home editor
Prison inspectors made an unannounced visit to Wandsworth in January last year and reported “some concerns” about measures to prevent escapes.
A prisoner had escaped in 2019 after a court visit. The inspectorate said it had been given “some assurance that action to prevent further escapes had been taken”.
However, they reported that “local security data” suggested shortcomings in the physical aspects of security.
The most infamous escape from Wandsworth prison was Ronnie Biggs who fled the jail in 1965 while serving a 30-year sentence for his part in the Great Train Robbery.
Chris Atkins - a film-maker who spent time in Wandsworth Prison for tax fraud - spoke to BBC Breakfast this morning.
Wandsworth like 'dystopian Fawlty Towers', says ex-prisoner
Image source, .We've reported that Daniel Abed Khalife escaped from HMP Wandsworth in London on Wednesday morning.
Her are some more details about the prison.
HMP Wandsworth is a men's local prison and is classed as category B with a capacity of 1,371. It also has a category C resettlement unit and is one of the largest prisons in the UK.
Category B prisons tend to hold those on shorter sentences, un-sentenced prisoners and prisoners on remand awaiting trial. Category C prisons are meant to offer education and training to prisoners.
For the last few years Wandsworth has been overcrowded, holding 60–80% more prisoners than it was designed for.
The building opened in 1851 and was originally called The Surrey House of Correction.
Wandsworth was designed to prioritise the separation of inmates through a panopticon design, with a central hub and separate spokes, keeping prisoners apart.
Labour MP previously 'raised concerns' on Wandsworth prison staffing
Rosena Allin-Khan, the Labour MP whose constituency includes HMP Wandsworth, told BBC Breakfast that in December last year, only seven members of staff turned up for a night shift to look after 1,500 inmates.
Former detective Peter Bleksley told 5 Live that Daniel Khalife's prison escape is a “catastrophic security failure”.
“Something that needs to be implemented is that any vehicle that enters the prison estate must be fitted with a state of the art tracking system,” Bleksley added.
Peter explained the chances of finding the fugitive will depend on if he was assisted in escaping or acted alone: “if no one has provided him with food, cash, access to finances, clothing and a roof over his head he would be easier to find [than] if he was fully supported by a criminal network”.
“If [Khalife] is operating on his own, desperation creeps in and you might find somebody rummaging in a bin to eat or shoplifting clothes - all of which would throw up CCTV”.
“Every spare resource the Met has got will be thrown at this.”
Image source, Met PoliceName: Daniel Abed Khalife
Age: 21
Height: 6ft 2ins (1.88m)
Where was he last seen? Khalife is accused of escaping from HMP Wandsworth at 07:50 BST on Wednesday morning.
Last seen wearing: Prison-issue chef's uniform of a white T-shirt, red and white chequered trousers and brown steel toe cap boots, according to police.
Why was he in Wandsworth prison? Khalife was being held ahead of a trial in relation to terrorism. He is accused of leaving fake bombs at RAF Stafford, where he worked as part of the British Army. He is also charged with eliciting information about another member of the armed forces which could be used in preparing an act of terror. He was allegedly working for a hostile state, but it is not known what country this is. Khalife denies the charges.
Is he considered high risk? Police say Khalife poses a "low risk" to the public but anyone who thinks they've spotted him are being urged not to approach him and to call 999 instead.
Does he have a history of going missing? Khalife had previously disappeared from RAF Stafford on 2 January after the alleged offences took place. He was arrested "in or near his car" on 26 January after "active efforts to look for him", a court was told earlier this year.
When was Khalife's trial set to start? 13 November at Woolwich Crown Court.
Image source, PA MediaHMP Wandsworth is a category B prison
As we have been reporting, questions are being asked as to why Daniel Abed Khalife, a terror suspect, was detained in HMP Wandsworth - a category B prison.
These prisons are either local or training prisons, and house people that are taken directly from court in the local area that are either sentenced or on remand. Khalife fits into the latter category.
But what about the other types of prisons?
Category A These high security prisons house male prisoners who, if they were to escape, pose the most threat to the public, the police or national security.
Category C These prisons are training and resettlement prisons. This is where most prisoners are located.
Category D These open prisons have minimal security and allow eligible prisoners to spend most of their day away from the prison on licence to carry out work, education or for other resettlement purposes.
Image source, PA MediaScience Secretary Michelle Donelan says the government's "top priority" is to find Daniel Abed Khalife.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Donelan claimed the number of prisoners who have escaped , externalsince the Conservatives entered government is "not incomparable to the number we saw under a Labour government".
Asked about staff shortages, Donelan says the government is "tackling" the issue and in the last year it increased the number of frontline prison officers by 20%.
Ian Acheson, former head of security at Wandsworth prison, tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme Khalife's escape is "incredibly embarrassing for the prison service, but it's not entirely surprising".
For the escape to have happened, Acheson says, "there would have had to have been multiple breaches of human and physical security".
He explains that "by all estimations" Khalife should have been at Belmarsh prison.
"Wandsworth, like so many of our flagship prisons, is in free fall," he adds, saying that morale is low and "on any day 30%, to up to 40% of frontline staff are unavailable to work".
Prison escapes in England and Wales have been rare in recent years, with just five since 2017, and fewer than 20 since 2010., external
A January 2022 report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons, external said a "serious security breach had led to an escape" from HMP Wandsworth in 2019.
The report said the inspectorate had been given "some assurance that action to prevent further escapes had been taken" but said "current local security data evidenced some concerns in the physical aspects of security".
The prison was placed on lockdown in the hours following Khalife's escape but restrictions have now been lifted.
Chris Mason
Political editor
There is another element to Khalife's escape: the politics.
Labour's only-just appointed shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood claimed the criminal justice system was in "a state of disrepair".
And the Labour MP whose patch includes Wandsworth Prison, Rosena Allin-Khan, claimed the jail is "chronically understaffed", citing data she had secured from the government at the beginning of this year
A government source said the figures were "a snapshot" and said the number of frontline prison officers recruited increased by 20% in the year to June 2023 - to 4,898.
The source added: "We are recruiting up to 5,000 additional prison officers across public and private prisons by the mid-2020s."
Image source, Getty ImagesDaniel Khalife's escape is "extremely serious", shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper says, with some "very grave questions about how on Earth this could happen".
Cooper tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme that staffing levels should be shared, to help explain what levels of security were in place.
Asked about Labour's view on those charged with national security offences, Cooper says "the [security] level of the prison that they're held in needs to reflect the security assessment of that individual".