Justice Secretary David Lammy has acknowledged a deepening crisis within Britain's prison system following the dramatic arrest of Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, an inmate who was accidentally released from HMP Wandsworth over a week ago.
The 24-year-old Algerian national was finally detained in north London on Friday morning, bringing an end to an intensive police search that required significant resources.
Public Vigilance Ends Week-Long Search
Kaddour-Cherif's freedom came to an abrupt end just before 11.30am on Friday when a vigilant member of the public spotted him on Blackstock Road in Finsbury Park. Algerian national Nadjib Mekdhia, 50, told how he immediately recognised the wanted man from newspaper photographs and alerted authorities.
"I was by the Algerian cafe. The individual approached me," Mr Mekdhia explained. "I recognised him. Straight away I called the police. The police vans came quickly." He added proudly: "I am glad he is in prison. We do not need people like that in our community."
Footage captured by Sky News showed Metropolitan Police officers arresting Kaddour-Cherif, who was wearing a grey hoodie and black beanie. When confronted, he initially denied his identity, claiming "Everyone knows him, he's in news."
Systemic Failures Under Scrutiny
The case has exposed serious flaws in the prison system, with Justice Secretary David Lammy admitting the government had inherited a system in crisis. "I'm appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing," Mr Lammy stated. "I'm determined to grip this problem, but there is a mountain to climb which cannot be done overnight."
Shockingly, Kaddour-Cherif was mistakenly freed on October 29th, but police were only informed of the error three days later on Tuesday, prompting the high-profile manhunt. The Algerian national was serving a sentence for trespass with intent to steal and had previous convictions for indecent exposure.
This incident follows another embarrassing blunder that saw Billy Smith, 35, accidentally released from the same prison on Monday, though he voluntarily returned to custody on Thursday.
Growing Pattern of Prison Errors
The mistaken releases have intensified pressure on Mr Lammy, who also serves as Deputy Prime Minister. The situation echoes the recent case of Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian national mistakenly freed on October 24th instead of being transferred to an immigration detention centre.
Official figures reveal the scale of the problem, showing that 262 prisoners were released in error in the year to March 2025 - a dramatic 128% increase from 115 in the previous twelve months. Alarmingly, 90 of these mistaken releases involved violent or sex offenders.
Mr Lammy has announced several measures to address the crisis, including tough new release checks, an independent investigation into systemic failures, and modernising archaic paper-based systems still used in some prisons. He revealed that engineers and analysts would be sent into prisons "within 48 hours" to implement technology aimed at reducing human error.
However, questions remain about the timing of these reforms, as Kaddour-Cherif was freed before the tougher checks were implemented, despite Mr Lammy telling MPs they were effective immediately two days before the wrongful release.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp condemned the situation, stating: "The British public shouldn't have to be the ones to catch escaped criminals. This is chaos, incompetence and weakness from top to bottom, and it's putting people's safety at risk." He demanded that Kaddour-Cherif be immediately deported once his sentence is completed.
As Kaddour-Cherif was led away by police, he turned to onlookers and declared: "Look at the justice of the UK, they release people by mistake, after this they 'ah ah ah', it's not my f****** fault." His words underscore the systemic failures that allowed his mistaken release and the week of freedom that followed.
