Overview
- London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed a 24-year-old Algerian was wrongly released from Wandsworth on October 29 and remains at large.
- The man has been named in media reports as Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, and the Home Office says he is not an asylum seeker and is subject to deportation proceedings.
- Police later issued an appeal for another wrongly released inmate, William Smith, who had been serving a 45‑month sentence for fraud at the same prison.
- Justice Minister David Lammy launched an inquiry, said he was outraged by the errors, and faced heated Commons questions after declining to confirm prior knowledge of the new case.
- Downing Street called the mistakes “totally unacceptable” and urged reform, citing official data showing erroneous releases rose to 262 in 2024–25 from 115 the year before.