Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif has been taken back into custody after being mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth over a week ago.
The 24-year-old, captured on video being handcuffed by police in Islington, north London, was serving time for trespassing with the intent to steal. He also has a prior conviction for indecent exposure.
It is reported that Kaddour-Cherif is not seeking asylum but is facing deportation proceedings due to overstaying his visa.
He remained at large for nine days before the Metropolitan Police were notified of his departure from Wandsworth on Tuesday.
In a similar incident, another inmate, 35-year-old Billy Smith, who was also inadvertently released from the same prison, voluntarily returned on Monday.
While Kaddour-Cherif’s recapture may offer some relief to authorities, it is unlikely to quell the criticism directed at David Lammy, who has been labeled as ‘cowardly’ and ‘incompetent’ in his management of the situation.
The Justice Secretary was blasted by fellow ministers over his refusal to answer questions in the House of Commons about the criminal’s release.
Mr Lammy, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, refused to confirm Kaddour-Cherif had been freed during exchanges at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
He has also been criticised for not returning to Parliament later to give a statement on the detail of that had happened.
Alex Davies-Jones, a junior minister at the Ministry of Justice, was left to be quizzed about the scandal during a round of TV and radio interviews on Thursday morning.
One Cabinet minister told The Times of Mr Lammy’s response to the mistaken prisoner release: ‘It’s cowardly. He should have fronted up and owned it.
‘I still don’t understand why he didn’t confirm it or make a statement in the Commons. He left it to a junior minister to do the broadcast round. The handling is terrible.’
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was filmed being arrested by Met Police officers today in Islington, north London
As he was being arrested, Kaddour-Cherif said the mix up at the prison was the fault of officials
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif had been serving a sentence at HMP Wandsworth for trespass with intent to steal. He has a past conviction for indecent exposure
Another Cabinet minister told the newspaper the row had brought into question Mr Lammy’s political ‘judgment’ and his ‘aggressive manner’ in the Commons.
A third minister said: ‘The PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] are deeply unhappy. They think the way he has handled this is awful. Why can’t he just hold his hands up?’
A senior Government source said: ‘It feels less like a contempt [of Parliament] issue, more just rank incompetence and frankly pretty dodgy.’
A manhunt for Kaddour-Cherif is ongoing. But another prisoner, Billy Smith, 35, who was also accidentally freed from the same prison on Monday, has handed himself back in.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that he was ‘angry and frustrated’ by ‘intolerable’ wrongful prisoner releases, although he defended Mr Lammy.
The Justice Secretary did appear in front of TV cameras himself on Thursday afternoon to be quizzed about the prisoner release row.
But Mr Lammy raised further questions when he said Kaddour-Cherif was mistakenly released before new checks were implemented.
This is despite him telling MPs last Monday those checks were effective immediately, two days before the wrongful release on October 29.
Whitehall sources later said the Ministry of Justice was investigating evidence that the mistakes that triggered Kaddour-Cherif’s release took place in September.
Mr Lammy repeatedly refused to confirm at PMQs on Wednesday, when he was standing in for Sir Keir, whether any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since Hadush Kebatu, the now-deported migrant at the heart of protests in Epping, Essex.
He told reporters on Thursday he was ‘not equipped with all the detail’ about Kaddour-Cherif’s release when he appeared in the Commons.
‘We have found out that the release that has caused concern, this week, was actually before I introduced those checks just a few weeks ago following the release of Kebatu, and the other prisoner was a court mistake not, in fact, a prison mistake,’ Mr Lammy added.
The Justice Secretary had confirmed on October 27 that stronger release checks would come into force immediately, two days before Kaddour-Cherif was released.
The Tories accused him of potentially misleading the public.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: ‘David Lammy has either lied or has absolutely no clue what’s going on in his department.
‘How can the public have confidence in the Justice Secretary when he can’t establish a timeline of events or answer basic questions?’
Housing Secretary Steve Reed on Friday morning dismissed criticism of Mr Lammy from fellow ministers as ‘anonymous tittle tattle’.
He told Times Radio: ‘The problem is we’ve got a broken system, and you are going to see failings when you have a broken system.
‘The key is to make sure we have a digital system so that no prisoner is ever released by mistake.
‘There is not an acceptable number for this, but the way to fix it is not tittle tattle about David Lammy in the newspapers, it’s to get on and do the work and put in the investment that will digitise the system.
‘David has already had the prison governors in his office yesterday, I imagine they felt pretty hauled over the coals given what’s been going on.
‘But he was also making sure that they’re getting all the support they need to carry out the much tougher checks that will be required to make sure that the repeats of this are at an absolute minimum.’
