2 hours ago
4
Police have launched an urgent manhunt for a second foreign prisoner mistakenly freed, two days after the justice secretary, David Lammy, brought in stronger checks for jails.
The 24-year-old Algerian was wrongly released from Wandsworth prison in south London last Wednesday, with the Metropolitan police only informed this week.
The Guardian understands that the man was in prison for trespass with intent to steal.
It comes after Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian national, was accidentally freed from Chelmsford prison despite convictions for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman days after arriving in the UK in a small boat.
Kebatu was released from prison by mistake on 24 October when he was supposed to be removed to an immigration detention centre. He was arrested in north London and deported after being given a £500 discretionary payment.
Three days after Kebatu’s release, Lammy announced that tough new checks would be brought in immediately to prevent another mistaken release, and that the former police chief Lynne Owens would chair an investigation into the error.
A Metropolitan police spokesperson said: “Shortly after 1300hrs on Tuesday 4 November, the Met was informed by the Prison Service that a prisoner had been released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday 29 October.
“The prisoner is a 24-year-old Algerian man. Officers are carrying out urgent inquiries in an effort to locate him and return him to custody.”
Downing Street said it was “a concerning case”. Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson added: “It’s unacceptable, and the circumstances behind it will be forensically looked at … It’s clearly a developing situation, and it’s important to establish the facts.”
The spokesperson added: “One mistaken release is too many, as we saw in the Kebatu case. That is why we’ve ordered the review led by Lynne Owens. I think it’s fair to assume that this case will form part of that review.”
The Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, whose constituency includes Wandsworth prison, said: “I’m horrified to learn that someone was mistakenly released from Wandsworth prison.
“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.”
In tense Commons exchanges, the Tory frontbencher James Cartlidge, standing in for Kemi Badenoch at PMQs, repeatedly asked Lammy whether any asylum-seeking offenders had been accidentally let out of prison since Kebatu. He is understood to have been aware of the release when he asked his questions.
Cartlidge, a justice minister between 2021 and 2022, said: “He’s the justice secretary. He’s responsible for the justice system. He needs to take responsibility … Can he reassure the house that since Kebatu was released, no other asylum-seeking offender has been accidentally let out of prison?”
The justice secretary, standing in for Starmer, said: “We know that there have been spikes since 2021 under his watch. When did he come to this house and apologise? Let me just remind him that he was a justice minister that allowed our prisons to get to this state in the first place and it’s now for us to fix the mess that we’ve got into.”
In the year to March 2025, 262 prisoners were accidentally released, up from 115 the previous year. The Labour government has repeatedly attacked the Tories for leaving them a broken justice system.
The Conservatives called on Lammy to return to the Commons for statement. A spokesperson said: “If we knew, we can only assume the justice secretary knew.”
