Thursday, November 6, 2025 - Police
have launched a manhunt after another foreign prisoner was mistakenly released
from jail.
The 24-year-old Algerian man was accidentally
freed from HMP Wandsworth in south-west London on October 29, but the mistake
was only reported to the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday, the force
said.
It comes after migrant Hadush Kebatu was wrongly released
from HMP Chelmsford on October 24.
A spokesperson for the Met said: “Shortly after
13:00hrs 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 enquiries in an effort to
locate him and return him to custody.”
According to Sky News, the prisoner was in jail for trespass
with an intent to steal, but had previously committed s£xual offences.
Reacting to the incident, Deputy Prime Minister David
Lammy said he was “absolutely outraged” and that his officials have been
“working through the night to take him back to prison”.
"The Metropolitan Police is leading an urgent manhunt,
and my officials have been working through the night to take him back to
prison.
"Victims deserve better and the public deserve answers.
That is why I have already brought in the strongest checks ever to clamp down
on such failures and ordered an independent investigation, led by Dame Lynne
Owens to uncover what went wrong and address the rise in accidental releases
which has persisted for too long."
He added that the latest incident "exposes deeper flaws
across the failing criminal justice system we inherited".
The inmate’s mistaken release last Wednesday came just days after stronger security checks were put in place in prisons and an independent investigation was launched into releases in error following the blunder in Kebatu’s case.
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