Mistaken Release of Registered Sex Offender from Wandsworth Prompts Re‑arrest and Official Review

London — Mistaken release leads to re‑arrest

A 24‑year‑old registered sex offender, Brahim Kaddour‑Cherif, who was mistakenly released early from Wandsworth Prison, was re‑arrested in north London on Friday after more than a week at liberty, police said.

Cherif was one of two inmates accidentally freed from Wandsworth in the past two weeks. The other man, 35‑year‑old Billy Smith—who had been jailed for nearly four years for fraud—surrendered to the same prison on Thursday.

Details of the stop and footage

Video of Cherif's arrest, broadcast by Sky News, shows officers stopping a man in north London. He initially denied his identity, saying, 'I'm not Brahim, bro,' before officers compared his appearance with a photo on their phones and he effectively admitted who he was. According to the footage, Cherif told officers, 'It is not my fault. They released me illegally.'

Background and system failures

Cherif, a registered sex offender because of a prior indecent‑exposure conviction, was serving time for trespass with intent to steal. The Algerian national overstayed a lawful visit to the U.K. in 2019 and was in the initial stages of deportation when he walked off Wandsworth's grounds on a Monday.

Wandsworth, a south‑west London prison built in the mid‑19th century, had already been under scrutiny after a prisoner escaped two years ago by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck. The recent inadvertent releases followed promised security tightenings after an earlier mistaken release from Chelmsford Prison on Oct. 24.

Prison leaders were summoned to a meeting to explain the errors. Officials said they are working to modernise record‑keeping systems that still rely heavily on paper files—a factor that has complicated tracking and processing and may have contributed to administrative mistakes.

Political fallout and statistics

The mistakes have become a political flashpoint. Government figures show 262 prisoners were released in error in the year ending March 2025—a 128% increase compared with the previous 12 months. Conservatives blame a Labour policy of early releases intended to prevent overcrowding, while Labour points to 14 years of prior underfunding and austerity that it says left the Prison Service overstretched.

Justice Secretary David Lammy said: "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."

Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and adviser to ministers, told the Telegraph that overcrowding and the pressure to move prisoners quickly are likely contributors to the rise in accidental releases. "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.

Next steps

An official review has begun and ministers have demanded explanations from prison management about operational failures and record‑keeping. Authorities say they are taking steps to tighten procedures and accelerate efforts to digitise records to reduce the risk of repeat errors.