**London Prison’s Accidental Early Releases Spark Political Controversy**
A convicted sex offender who was mistakenly released early from a London prison was re-arrested Friday after more than a week on the run, police confirmed.
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was one of two inmates accidentally freed from Wandsworth Prison in the past two weeks, incidents that have caused a political headache for the government and brought renewed attention to an overcrowded and overwhelmed prison system.
The other inmate, Billy Smith, 35, sentenced to nearly four years for fraud, was also mistakenly released on the same day as Cherif. Smith voluntarily turned himself in at the Victorian-era facility on Thursday.
Cherif, a registered sex offender due to a prior indecent exposure conviction, was serving time for trespassing with intent to steal. The Algerian national had overstayed a legal visit to the UK in 2019 and was in the early stages of deportation when he was allowed to walk out of prison grounds on Monday.
Police subsequently stopped Cherif in north London in an arrest captured on video by national broadcaster Sky News. Initially, he denied being the man police sought. “I’m not Brahim, bro,” he told an officer, who recognized his distinctive nose.
“Everyone knows him, he’s in the news,” Cherif said. After officers showed him a photo of the wanted man on their phones, he effectively admitted his identity.
“It is not my fault,” Cherif insisted. “They released me illegally.”
Both men were wrongly freed from Wandsworth Prison, located in southwest London and built in the mid-19th century. The prison has been under scrutiny, especially after another inmate escaped two years ago by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck.
These inadvertent releases followed tighter security checks that were supposed to prevent such mistakes, especially after an asylum seeker—whose case spurred anti-immigrant protests—was mistakenly freed from Chelmsford Prison, east of London, on October 24.
Prison chiefs were summoned to a meeting Thursday to discuss the errors. They acknowledged efforts are underway to update the system, which still relies on paper prison records.
The mistaken releases have ignited heated debate and become a political liability for the Labour government, after also challenging their Conservative predecessors.
According to government figures, 262 prisoners were released in error in the year ending March 2025—a 128% increase compared to the previous 12-month period.
Conservative critics blame the Labour administration’s policy of releasing some inmates early to avoid exceeding prison capacity. Meanwhile, Labour points to 14 years of Conservative rule and austerity measures that have deprived the Prison Service of vital resources.
Justice Secretary David Lammy commented on the arrest, saying, “We inherited a prison system in crisis, and I’m appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing. I’m determined to grip this problem, but there is a mountain to climb which cannot be done overnight.”
An official review into the matter has begun. Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and adviser to UK government ministers, pointed to overcrowding as a root cause of the rise in accidental releases.
Overcrowding increases pressure on prison managers to release offenders as quickly as possible, leading to more prisoner movements within the system, Acheson explained to the Telegraph.
“It is quite possible that one of the reasons for the increase in these mistakes has been the push and imperative to get people out,” he said.
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*This incident highlights ongoing challenges within the UK’s prison system, emphasizing the urgent need for structural reforms to ensure public safety and restore confidence in correctional administration.*
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sex-offender-mistakenly-release-uk-prison-london-re-arrested/