Daniel Khalife pleads not guilty to Wandsworth prison escape

21 September 2023

Former soldier Daniel Khalife has pleaded not guilty to escaping from Wandsworth prison in London.

He is accused of escaping from lawful custody, after allegedly breaking out on 6 September and spending four days on the run.

The 21-year-old appeared in court by video link from HMP Belmarsh wearing a bright blue and yellow sweatshirt.

Mr Khalife allegedly escaped prison by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery vehicle with bedsheets.

Police said he was arrested by a plain-clothes counter-terrorism officer while riding a bike along a canal towpath in Northolt, west London on the morning of 9 September.

Appearing at the Old Bailey on Thursday from the segregation unit at Belmarsh prison, Mr Khalife was told he was charged with escaping from HMP Wandsworth.

Asked by the clerk "are you guilty or not guilty?", he replied: "I am not guilty."

Mr Khalife will be back at the Old Bailey on 13 October and is due to stand trial at Woolwich Crown Court on 13 November.

The three other charges he faces from before the alleged escape are:

collecting information useful to the enemy, allegedly Iran
eliciting information about members of the armed forces likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism
perpetrating a bomb hoax