Man mistakenly freed from London prison turns himself in

An Algerian national is one of two men mistakenly freed from a prison in Britain. He is still at large. It's the latest in a series of blunders by the UK prison service.

A man mistakenly released from a London prison turned himself in on Thursday, three days after he was accidentally freed.

Billy Smith was sentenced to four years behind bars on Monday when an administrative error at Wandsworth prison instead saw him released.

It’s the latest gaffe by the overcrowded UK prison system, which has become a political liability for successive governments.

On the same day Smith was released, an Algerian national was also set mistakenly free. Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a registered sex offender, was serving time for trespass with an intent to steal. Police are still searching for him.

Both men were wrongly freed from Wandsworth, which was built in southwest London in the middle of the 19th century, and was under scrutiny after another prisoner escaped two years ago by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck.

Anti-immigrant protests

The inadvertent releases followed more stringent controls that were supposed to be in place after an asylum-seeker who inspired a rise of anti-immigrant protests was mistakenly freed from Chelmsford Prison, east of London, on October 24.

Last month, Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an asylum seeker sentenced to a year in prison, was also released by mistake. Kebatu had inspired anti-immigrant protests when he was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. He was captured after a two-day search and quickly deported to his home country of Ethiopia.

After the Kebatu search, the government announced stronger security checks in prisons and launched an independent investigation into the blunder.

According to government figures, 262 prisoners were released in error in the year ending March 2025, a 128 percent increase on the previous 12-month period.

Britain’s prison service is struggling with overcrowding and a lack of funding.