Public Alert Leads to Arrest After Prison Blunder
A week-long manhunt for a wrongly released prisoner has ended with the arrest of Brahim Kaddour-Cherif in North London. The 24-year-old Algerian national was detained by Metropolitan Police officers after a member of the public recognised him on Blackstock Road in Finsbury Park.
The arrest brings a temporary close to an embarrassing episode for the justice system, which saw Kaddour-Cherif accidentally freed from HMP Wandsworth on October 29. Police were only informed of the error three days later, triggering a significant search operation.
A System in Crisis: Scale of the Problem Revealed
Justice Secretary David Lammy acknowledged the profound challenges facing the prison system, stating there was a "mountain to climb" to resolve the crisis. He expressed being appalled by the rate of mistaken releases.
Official figures reveal the scale of the issue, with 262 prisoners in England and Wales mistakenly released in the year to March 2025. This represents a staggering 128% increase from the previous year. Alarmingly, 90 of these erroneous releases involved violent or sex offenders.
Following the arrest, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "The vast majority of offenders released by mistake are quickly brought back to prison, and we will do everything we can to work with the police to capture the few still in the community."
Political Fallout and Promised Reforms
The incident has intensified political pressure on the government. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp condemned the situation as "chaos, incompetence and weakness from top to bottom" and called for Kaddour-Cherif's deportation upon sentence completion.
In response, Mr Lammy has announced a series of measures designed to prevent future errors. These include new tough release checks, an independent investigation into systemic failures, and plans to overhaul archaic paper-based systems still used in some prisons.
Kaddour-Cherif, who was serving a sentence for trespass with intent to steal and has a previous conviction for indecent exposure, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker relating to a previous incident. During his arrest, he was captured on video claiming the situation was not his fault, stating: "Look at the justice of the UK, they release people by mistake... it's not my fault."
Despite this arrest, the PA news agency understands that four other prisoners released in error remain at large, highlighting the ongoing challenges within the system.
