Ibrahim Kaddour-Cherif was released in error from HMP Wandsworth. Photo / Met Police
A second migrant sex offender – who should have been deported five years ago – has been accidentally released from prison.
The 24-year-old Algerian man, understood to be Ibrahim Kaddour-Cherif, was wrongly freed from HMP Wandsworth, in south London, last week.
But the Prison Service only told the Metropolitan Police about the release this week.
Kaddour-Cherif was serving time for trespass with intent to steal but had previously committed indecent exposure, it is understood.
He most recently appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court in September on a charge of failing to comply with requirements for sex offenders.
Kaddour-Cherif was already facing deportation for overstaying his visitor visa after entering the UK in 2019.
The Home Office said that he was “in the initial stages” of the deportation process after being logged as illegally overstaying his visa on February 6, 2020.
The news emerged in Parliament when David Lammy, the Deputy Prime Minister, refused five times to say whether any other migrants had been mistakenly released when asked by James Cartlidge, a member of the opposition.
The number of releases in error has doubled in the past year, from 115 to 266. In the Commons exchanges, Lammy blamed the Tories for leaving prisons in an appalling state.
After Cartlidge persisted with his questioning over whether there had been another mistaken release, the Justice Secretary said: “Get a grip.”
He added: “In 25 years in this House, I have not witnessed a more shameful spectacle, frankly, than what the party opposite left in our justice system.”
Lammy later said he was “absolutely outraged and appalled by the mistaken release of a foreign criminal wanted by the police”, adding that “officials have been working through the night to take him back to prison”.
It is understood that Lammy found out about the second accidental release overnight, but believed it would have been irresponsible to talk about it while details were still emerging.
Less than two weeks ago the first migrant prisoner to be accidentally released, Hadush Kebatu, the Epping migrant sex offender, was wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford instead of being transferred to an immigration removal centre. It led to a 48-hour manhunt by police.
Kebatu, who was jailed for sexually assaulting a teenage girl and another woman, was forcibly deported back to his home country of Ethiopia after being paid £500 ($1150) to drop his threat to lodge a fresh asylum claim and disrupt his removal from the UK.
Kebatu’s 14-year-old victim said she had broken down into tears when she heard Kebatu had received £500.
“When I got home, I just cried because I felt like he got paid for what he done to me,” she said in a statement.
Speaking anonymously to ITV News to protect his daughter’s identity, the girl’s father said: “She was getting better until last weekend. All I can do now is try and pick up the pieces that the government will keep breaking off my daughter.”
The Algerian national was accidentally released despite the introduction of tighter checks – described by Lammy as the toughest ever.
Lammy ordered an independent inquiry into the release of Kebatu by Dame Lynne Owens, the former head of the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Andy Davy, the governor of HMP Wandsworth, was appointed by the Prison Service to carry out an internal inquiry into how Kebatu was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford last month.
The Justice Secretary also ordered a three-page checklist of new mandatory release measures, including requiring a prison governor to be physically present when a foreign offender is released.
It is not clear why the prison service did not alert police for six days.
The Met Police said: “Shortly after 13.00hrs on Tuesday, November 4, the Met was informed by the Prison Service that a prisoner had been released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday, Oct 29.
“The prisoner is a 24-year-old man of Algerian nationality. Officers are carrying out urgent inquiries in an effort to locate the man and return him to custody.”
HMP Wandsworth admitted it had released a second prisoner in error who is now being hunted by Surrey Police.
William Smith, 35, who was jailed for 45 months for multiple frauds, was freed by mistake from HMP Wandsworth on Monday, just five days after the release of Kaddour-Cherif the previous Wednesday.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said: “Another dangerous criminal is on the loose thanks to Labour. What a total farce.”
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said: “This is another shambles under Calamity Lammy’s watch. Accidental releases of prisoners have more than doubled under this gGvernment, and David Lammy doesn’t have a clue what’s going on.
“The British people are being put in danger time and again due to the government’s sheer incompetence.”
Rosena Allin-Khan, the local Labour MP, said: “I’m horrified to learn that someone was mistakenly released from Wandsworth Prison with such a shocking list of offences.
“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.”
Downing Street tried to blame the previous Conservative government for the mistaken release of another migrant, describing the blunder as “utterly unacceptable”.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “We have been very open about the chaos that this government has inherited”, adding that the case would be at the forefront of the review into wrongful releases by Dame Lynne.
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