British police have launched two new manhunts to track down two prisoners who were wrongly released last week. This comes after the government introduced stricter checks just days earlier.
Brahim Kaddur-Cherif, 24, an Algerian national, was wrongly released from Wandsworth Prison on October 29. He had been convicted of theft and indecent assault. He had been registered as a sex offender a year earlier. The incident was not reported to the police until six days after it occurred.
William Smith, 35, who was convicted of a series of frauds, was also wrongly released on Monday, shortly after his sentencing.
This is the third such case in recent memory. On October 24, Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadish Gerberslasi Kebatu, who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, was mistakenly released from Chelmsford Prison.
According to government figures, 262 prisoners were wrongly released in the year ending March 2025, a 128% increase on the previous year. Such cases are putting additional pressure on a prison system that has been suffering from years of under-resourcing.
