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Two prisoners who were mistakenly freed the previous year are still on the run, according to reports from the BBC. Additionally, two others who were released in error in June 2025 are also currently missing. The details surrounding the four individuals who were erroneously released are coming to light as government officials face increasing scrutiny over a series of high-profile mistaken releases. In a related incident, two men who were erroneously set free from HMP Wandsworth have since been apprehended after intensive police searches, following the mistaken release of a migrant sex offender in late October.
Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was taken into custody on Friday, while William Smith voluntarily returned himself to the south London prison on Thursday. Hadush Kebatu, an individual who arrived in the UK via a small boat and was imprisoned for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while residing in an asylum hotel, was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex. Subsequently, he was recaptured and deported. The number of prisoners mistakenly released in England and Wales increased to 262 in the year leading up to March, up from 115 the previous year. However, specifics regarding the identities of the four fugitive individuals, the reasons for their initial incarceration, and the circumstances of their mistaken release are still unclear.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) assured the BBC that the majority of offenders who are accidentally released are swiftly apprehended and returned to custody. Efforts are ongoing to collaborate with law enforcement agencies in capturing the individuals who are still at large in the community. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick criticized the government’s handling of the situation, highlighting the need for transparent communication regarding the number of mistakenly released prisoners and the current status of those who remain missing. Liberal Democrats spokeswoman Jess Brown-Fuller echoed the sentiments, emphasizing the urgency of allocating all available resources to locate the fugitive prisoners and condemning the current state of affairs as “a disgrace and an omnishambles.”
Recent reports reveal that four prisoners who were mistakenly released are still at large, including the arrest of Kaddour-Cherif following his erroneous release from HMP Wandsworth on 29 October. The Algerian national was apprehended by authorities near Finsbury Park in north London shortly before 11:30 GMT. Ironically, his capture occurred just a short distance away from where Kebatu had been re-apprehended less than a week prior. Kaddour-Cherif’s criminal history includes a conviction for indecent exposure in November 2024, resulting in an 18-month community order and registration as a sex offender for five years. He overshot his visitor visa to the UK after arriving in 2019 and was in the process of being deported. Despite being found not guilty of breaching the terms of the sex offenders’ register, he was prematurely released, with law enforcement only being notified several days later. Smith, who turned himself in, had been mistakenly let go after a clerical error at the courts, which saw a suspended sentence entered into the system instead of a custodial one
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