Police have arrested Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a second man suspected of being a wanted prisoner who was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth.
The first man, 35 year old William Smith, handed himself in to the prison yesterday.
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was arrested in the Finsbury Park area of North London following a tip-off from a member of the public.
This was the moment he was detained in front of Sky News’s Tom Parmenter.
A Met Police spokesperson said:
“At 11:23hrs on Friday, 7 November a call was received from a member of the public reporting a sighting of a man they believed to be Brahim Kaddour Cherif in the vicinity of Capital City College on Blackstock Road in Islington.
“Cherif was released in error from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday, 29 October.
“Officers responded immediately and at 11:30hrs detained a man matching Cherif’s description.
“His identity was confirmed and he was arrested for being unlawfully at large. He was also arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker in relation to a previous unrelated incident.
“He has been taken into police custody. The Prison Service has been informed.”
Deputy Prime Minister, David Lammy said:
I can confirm Brahim Kaddour-Cherif has been recaptured and is back in custody.
My thanks are with the police and staff at HMPPS who have been working around the clock.
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.
That is why I have ordered new tough release checks, commissioned an independent investigation into systemic failures, and begun overhauling archaic paper-based systems still used in some prisons.
