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Billy Smith, a 35-year-old serving nearly four years for fraud, surrendered at the historic Victorian-era lockup last Thursday. Meanwhile, another inmate, Brahim Cherif, found himself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Cherif, 24, is a registered sex offender with a prior conviction for indecent exposure. At the time of his release, he was serving a sentence for trespass with intent to steal. Originally from Algeria, Cherif overstayed his legal visit to the UK back in 2019 and was in the early stages of deportation proceedings when he managed to leave the prison.
The drama unfolded when police apprehended Cherif in north London, an arrest captured by Sky News cameras. Despite the evidence stacked against him, Cherif initially denied his identity, telling officers, “I’m not Brahim, bro,” even when one officer pointed out his distinctive nose.
Cherif’s audacious claims continued as he insisted he wasn’t responsible for being out on the streets, creating a bizarre yet compelling narrative that has captured public attention.
“I’m not Brahim, bro,” he initially told a police officer who said he recognised his distinctive nose.
“Everyone know him, he’s in (the) news,” Cherif said.
After police officers pulled out their phones to look at the photo of the wanted man, he effectively admitted he was Cherif.
“It is not my fault,” Cherif said. “They released me illegally.”
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.
The inadvertent releases followed more stringent security checks 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.
Prison chiefs were summoned to a meeting on Thursday to discuss the errors and said efforts were being made to update a system that still uses paper prison records.
The mistaken releases have become a source of heated debate and a political liability for the Labour government after being a thorn in the side of their Conservative predecessors.
According to government figures, 262 prisoners were released in error in the year ending March 2025, a 128 per cent increase on the previous 12-month period.
Conservatives say the Labour government is to blame for a policy to release some inmates earlier to ensure prisons don’t exceed capacity.
But Labour has blamed 14 years of Conservative rule and years of austerity that has starved the Prison Service of resources.
“We inherited a prison system in crisis and I’m appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing,” Justice Secretary David Lammy said after the arrest.
“I’m determined to grip this problem, but there is a mountain to climb which cannot be done overnight.”