Wandsworth’s latest prisoner hunt: Fugitive sex offender named by police after wrongful release last week

Brahim Kodour-Sharif, who was the man who was wrongfully released last week, had been convicted of indecent exposure, the sources said.

He was serving time at HMP Wandsworth in south-west London for assault with intent to rob before his accidental release.

The man wanted by the police who was mistakenly released from prison is Brahim Kador-Sharif.

The police are looking for this 24-year-old Algerian citizen who was released by mistake on Wednesday last week.

In a letter to David Lammy, Robert Genrick has asked him to return to Parliament to answer questions.

The shadow justice minister wrote a letter to the deputy prime minister accusing him of “constantly refusing to answer basic written questions”.

He asked Lammy seven questions, including why he didn’t notify the public immediately and whether the victims were notified.

He concluded his letter with the question, “How can people trust you after your behavior today and the many mistakes that have already occurred on your watch?”

David Lammy is said to have prepared a statement in advance which he chose not to use during PMQs.

The Times political editor said he had been told the statement was ready to be tabled as he was asked whether there had been any other wrongful publication in the Commons.

But instead of using it, the deputy prime minister chose to repeatedly question his questions on the matter.

It is said that he did not want to block the statement of the police.

Reacting to the latest incident, Mark Fairhurst, national president of the Prison Officers Association, said prison service leaders must ensure this does not happen.

He wants prison service leaders to ensure there are robust procedures in place to prevent this from happening.

“This shouldn’t happen, the end,” he said.

“It’s about the service leaders, not the frontline staff, they just follow the processes.”

The Whitehall Independent’s Kate Devlin reports:

As the prime minister heads to Brazil for the COP climate change conference, his government faces a crisis at home.

David Lammy said it was “absolutely infuriating and appalling”.

But the government faces serious questions about how this was allowed to happen.

No. 10 appears to have been in flight as well, despite the knowledge of other parts of the government.

There is also confusion over what the Justice Secretary knew and when, and how he got them out of the loop to allow the Tories to take such obvious aim at PMQs.

There are also questions about whether there is a wider crisis in Britain’s prisons following his release from Wandsworth, just a few years after the British ex-soldier escaped from prison while awaiting trial on charges of spying for Iran.

All this time, the Prime Minister is on a plane that is traveling halfway around the world.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp described the wrongful release of another accused as a “danger to the public” as “shocking”.

“Justice Minister David Lammy today failed to answer five questions from the Prime Minister about whether other foreign prisoners have been wrongly released recently,” he said.

“This makes a mockery of Lammy’s claims in PMQs to introduce the ‘strongest checks ever’ at the time of publication.”

He added: In my opinion, all foreign criminals should be deported automatically at the end of their sentence.

Independent political correspondent Caitlin Doherty reports:

There was a feeling that Number 10 was caught off guard when they had to react to the news of the released prisoner, moments after the story broke.

Amid repeated questions about who knew what and by whom, at the regular post-PMQs briefing on Wednesday, journalists were referred to a statement from the Metropolitan Police detailing the incident.

“One wrong copy is one too many,” the prime minister’s official spokesman told reporters, pointing to investigations that have already begun.

It is now understood that David Lammy was aware of the incident overnight, but we now know that the Tories knew about 15-20 minutes before PMQs started on Wednesday afternoon.

They have asked the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Lamy, to come to the House of Commons to answer questions about this.

Independent crime reporter Amy Claire Martin reports:

The prisoner who was wrongly released from HMP Wandsworth was not an asylum seeker. Independent understands

This 24-year-old Algerian was mistakenly released from a southwest London prison last Wednesday.

Details of his criminal history have not been confirmed.

A total of 262 people were wrongly released from prisons in England and Wales in the year to March 2024, according to official figures.

HMP Wandsworth was put under an urgent warning last year, with Chief Inspector Charlie Taylor warning that “systemic and cultural failures” at the prison were caused by “poor leadership at every level”.

In 2023, terror suspect Daniel Khalif managed to escape from a B-level medium security prison by strapping himself to the bottom of a food delivery van.

Independent political correspondent Caitlin Doherty reports:

Number 10 described the prisoner’s release as “completely unacceptable” and will investigate the situation “immediately”.

Moments after this news was published, the official spokesperson of the prime minister told reporters: We fully agree that these types of cases are completely unacceptable and must be dealt with, and the system must be reformed and proper investigations must be carried out to prevent these types of incidents from happening.

“People will rightly find any wrongful release of a prisoner from street detention unacceptable.

“It is important that the police are given the time and space to take him back into custody. And we will investigate the circumstances behind this as a matter of urgency.”