David
Lammy under pressure as more prisoners mistakenly freed
Algerian
and a fraudster freed by Wandsworth jail, days after new checks brought in
after Ethiopian prisoner wrongly released
Pippa
Crerar, Peter Walker and Rajeev Syal
Wed 5 Nov
2025 18.08 GMT
David
Lammy, the justice secretary, is under mounting pressure after that two more
prisoners including a convicted foreign sex offender were mistakenly freed,
days after the justice secretary introduced stringent checks for jails.
Lammy had
refused multiple times to say whether any more prisoners had been released in
error in a bruising session of prime minister’s questions, having been ambushed
with a string of pre-planned questions on the issue.
Almost
immediately after the exchange it was revealed that Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a
24-year-old Algerian who had overstayed his visa, was wrongly released from
Wandsworth prison in south London last Wednesday, with the Metropolitan police
informed only on Tuesday.
The same
prison also accidentally freed the fraudster William Smith, AKA Billy, 35, on
Monday. Described as white, bald and clean-shaven, he was sentenced to 45
months for multiple fraud offences on the day he was accidentally freed.
The
latest errors come just weeks after Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian national, was
accidentally freed from Chelmsford prison despite convictions for sexually
assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman days after arriving in the UK in a
small boat.
Lammy had
ordered five pages of new checks for prison governors after the release of
Kebatu, who was supposed to be removed to an immigration detention centre. He
was arrested in north London and deported after being given a £500
discretionary payment.
The
Guardian understands that Cherif was in prison for trespass with intent to
steal but was convicted in November 2024 of indecent exposure linked to an
incident in March of the same year. He was sentenced to an 18-month community
order.
Cherif is
understood to have entered the UK legally on a visit visa in 2019 but
overstayed. An “automatic probable overstayer” case was created by the Home
Office in February 2020 and is, sources say, in the initial stages of the
deportation process. Questions will be raised as to why he was not removed from
the UK five years ago after overstaying his visa.
The Met
was informed of Cherif’s release shortly after 1pm on Tuesday, giving him a
six-day head start on the search. He has links to the Tower Hamlets area, but
is also known to frequent the Westminster area.
A Met
spokesperson said: “Shortly after 1300hrs on Tuesday 4 November, the Met was
informed by the Prison Service that a prisoner had been released in error from
HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday 29 October.”
Surrey
police meanwhile put out an appeal to find Billy Smith, 35, who was released in
error on Monday. Smith was sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences
at Croydon crown court on Monday, during which he appeared via a live video
link from HMP Wandsworth.
The
Prison Service is examining the possibility that officers did not have a
warrant to hold the men in custody. There has been an increasing number of
cases in which prisoners are being moved between jails and courts and warrants
are being lost and misplaced in the process. This forces prison staff to allow
prisoners to walk free.
Downing
Street said it was “a concerning case”, with Keir Starmer’s official
spokesperson adding: “It’s unacceptable, and the circumstances behind it will
be forensically looked at … It’s clearly a developing situation, and it’s
important to establish the facts.”
The
spokesperson said: “One mistaken release is too many, as we saw in the Kebatu
case. That is why we’ve ordered the review led by Lynne Owens. I think it’s
fair to assume that this case will form part of that review.”
The
Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, whose constituency includes Wandsworth prison,
said: “I’m horrified to learn that someone was mistakenly released from
Wandsworth prison.
“Local
residents will quite rightly be deeply concerned. We urgently need answers from
the government and Ministry of Justice as to how this was allowed to happen.”
In tense
Commons exchanges, the Tory frontbencher James Cartlidge, standing in for Kemi
Badenoch at prime minster’s questions, clashed with Lammy, who was standing in
for the prime minister, who is in Brazil for the COP summit.
Cartlidge
asked repeatedly whether any asylum-seeking offenders had been accidentally let
out of prison since Kebatu. He is understood to have been aware of the release
when he asked his questions.
He said:
“He’s the justice secretary. He’s responsible for the justice system. He needs
to take responsibility … Can he reassure the house that since Kebatu was
released, no other asylum-seeking offender has been accidentally let out of
prison?”
Lammy
said: “We know that there have been spikes since 2021 under his watch. When did
he come to this house and apologise? Let me just remind him that he was a
justice minister that allowed our prisons to get to this state in the first
place and it’s now for us to fix the mess that we’ve got into.”
In the
year to March 2025, 262 prisoners were accidentally released, up from 115 the
previous year. The Labour government has attacked the Tories repeatedly for
leaving them a broken justice system.
Reacting
to the mistaken release after PMQs, Lammy said he was “absolutely outraged”. He
added: “The Metropolitan police is leading an urgent manhunt, and my officials
have been working through the night to take him back to prison. Victims deserve
better and the public deserve answers.
“That is
why I have already brought in the strongest checks ever to clamp down on such
failures and ordered an independent investigation, led by Dame Lynne Owens, to
uncover what went wrong and address the rise in accidental releases, which has
persisted for too long.”
Lammy
said the latest incident exposed “deeper flaws” across the criminal justice
system and that Owens’s review would leave “no stone unturned” to identify the
problems so they could be fixed.
The
Conservatives called on Lammy to return to the Commons to make a statement. A
spokesperson said: “If we knew, we can only assume the justice secretary knew.”
Responding
to the latest release, the Prison Officers’ Association called for an “entire
overhaul” of the sentencing calculation and discharging process and warned
Lammy not to seek to blame individual officers for systemic failures.
Mark
Fairhurst, the POA’s national chair, said: “This latest releasing error
highlights the immense pressure placed on the system and the need for an entire
overhaul of the sentencing calculation and discharge process.
“Staff on
the frontline should not become scapegoats when the leaders of the service have
failed to address this problem for at least the last 12 months.”
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