A major administrative failure has occurred at HMP Wandsworth, where two prisoners were mistakenly released within days of each other.
Date: Early November 2025
Location: Wandsworth, London, United Kingdom
LONDON — The first individual, Brahim Kaddour‑Cherif, aged 24 and Algerian, was released on 29 October but the prison service only notified the police on 4 November — giving him a six-day head start.
The second individual, William “Billy” Smith, aged 35 and from Woking, was wrongly released on the same day he was sentenced — after a judicial error mistakenly labelled his custodial sentence as suspended.
Why this is serious:
Kaddour-Cherif is a registered sex offender, previously convicted of indecent exposure and on the sex offenders’ register.
Smith had just been given a 45-month custodial sentence for multiple fraud offences when the error occurred.
These errors follow the high-profile release of another offender, Hadush Kebatu, from HMP Chelmsford, and reflect deeper systemic issues in the prison service.
The prison in question, Wandsworth, has a track record of serious failures, including the escape of Daniel Khalife in 2023.
Official response and reaction:
The Metropolitan Police and Surrey Police have launched urgent manhunts for both released prisoners.
Justice Secretary David Lammy has called the situation “absolutely outraged” and promised a full investigation led by former police chief Dame Lynne Owens.
Opposition parties and local MPs are demanding accountability. One MP described the situation as “utterly unacceptable”.
The number of mistaken prisoner releases is on the rise: 262 in the year to March 2025, up from 115 the previous year.
How it happened:
In the case of Smith, a court wrongly classified his sentence as suspended, the correction was sent to the wrong address, and he walked free.
In the case of Kaddour-Cherif, a delay in notifying the police allowed him several days of freedom.
Systemic issues: outdated IT systems, manual release calculations, missing warrants, understaffed wings.
What this means:
Public safety is compromised: a sex offender and a fraudster are at large.
Institutional trust in the prison system is further eroded.
The government’s handling of the justice system is facing sharp scrutiny.
Immediate operational reforms are required: improved release-checks, court-prison communication, oversight of High risk cases.
Next steps:
Tracking down both released prisoners: the public is urged to report sightings (but not approach them).
Investigations into Wandsworth’s processes and system failures.
Full report from Dame Lynne Owens’ review, with recommendations and accountability.
Potential leadership changes or sanctions if systemic failure is proven.
Monitoring of all prison release processes: especially for foreign nationals, sex offenders, and high-security cases.
This is a serious breakdown. Twice in a week, at the same prison, individuals who should have remained in custody were released by error.
What Happens Next
Justice Secretary David Lammy has ordered a rapid internal review at HMP Wandsworth, calling the double blunder “a total failure of process and accountability.” The inquiry will be led by Dame Lynne Owens, former head of the National Crime Agency, who has been asked to deliver her findings within weeks.
The Prison Officers’ Association is already warning that staff shortages, outdated IT systems, and a “chaotic paper-trail culture” are creating the perfect storm for further mistakes. “We’re running prisons designed for the 1970s with a 2025 crisis workload,” one senior official told reporters.
Lammy is expected to face questions in Parliament next week, as opposition MPs demand to know how a Category B prison with a recent history of escapes and security breaches could fail twice in days. The Ministry of Justice insists new digital safeguards will be “immediately introduced” to stop any more wrongful releases — but for many, confidence in the system has already been shaken.
Public trust, once fractured, won’t be easily restored. The country now waits to see if the government can lock down its own house before another gate opens by mistake.
Update as of 7th November 2025:
The Met Police statement in full
published at 12:40. In a statement they say:
“At 11:23hrs on Friday, 7 November a call was received from a member of the public reporting a sighting of a man they believed to be Brahim Kaddour Cherif in the vicinity of Capital City College on Blackstock Road in Islington.
“Cherif was released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday, 29 October. The Met was informed on the afternoon of Tuesday, 4 November and a manhunt was launched.
“The operation has involved the deployment of significant resources including local officers and also officers from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command.
“Officers responded immediately and at 11:30hrs detained a man matching Cherif’s description.
“His identity was confirmed and he was arrested for being unlawfully at large. He was also arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker in relation to a previous incident.
“He has been taken into police custody. The Prison Service has been informed.”