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A nation left defenceless when two dangerous prisoners remain at large over a year after being mistakenly freed, while another pair, erroneously released in June 2025, still evade capture. This escalating scandal exposes a prison system in freefall, endangering Britons through systemic incompetence and chronic underinvestment.
Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was accidentally released from HMP Wandsworth on 29 October 2025. A convicted indecent exposer facing deportation, he was at large for nine days before police, only alerted on 4 November, recaptured him in Finsbury Park on 7 November. Another inmate, Billy Smith, 35, freed from the same jail on 3 November, surrendered two days later.
These are not anomalies. In the year to March 2025, 262 prisoners were mistakenly released, a 128 per cent surge from 115 the previous year, and a 434 per cent leap from 49 in 2015.
Shockingly, 90 were violent or sexual offenders. The crisis traces back to crumbling infrastructure: outdated paper systems, staff shortages, and rushed early-release schemes.
Prison officer numbers fell three per cent to 22,980 by June 2025, with the inmate-to-staff ratio worsening to 2.4:1. Guards rely on pocket calculators to compute release dates: a farce that invites disaster.
Justice Secretary David Lammy admits Labour inherited a “crisis” but faces fury for weak oversight. His “tough new checks,” announced days before the Wandsworth escapes, failed instantly. An independent probe into systemic failures has been launched, but public trust is shattered.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick condemned the government for “relentlessly failing victims,” declaring: “The chaos continues. The government keeps putting the British people at risk.” Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, whose constituency includes Wandsworth, called staffing and procedures “appalling.”
Earlier blunders, like the October 2024 mistaken release of Ethiopian sex offender Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford, triggered riots in Epping. Five more erroneous releases followed within a week.
With four high-risk offenders still at large , including two from last year, the message is grim: the British state is not just failing to contain threats, it is actively unleashing them.
This article was originally published by SnDMedia.
