credit, Getty Images
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- author, Seema Kotecha
- scroll, BBC News’ chief UK correspondent
The UK government has come under criticism and pressure to explain its position after several cases emerged of prisoners being wrongly released from the country’s prisons.
The latest cases involve searches of four prisoners who were wrongly released in 2024 and 2025. Other prisoners in similar incidents have also been released in recent months, but are already detained.
In total, 262 prisoners were wrongly released in England and Wales between March 2024 and March 2025. This total represents a 128% increase on the 115 cases recorded in the previous 12 months.
Cases
According to BBC information, two prisoners who were released last year are still at large. Two others, mistakenly released in June 2025, remain missing.
Details regarding the four wrongly released prisoners are emerging as pressure on the government mounts.
Two more men were mistakenly released from Wandsworth prison in London and are now in custody again after extensive police searches over the past week.
Algerian sex offender Ibrahim Kaddour Al-Sherif was arrested on Friday (11/7), while Briton William Smith surrendered himself on Thursday (6).
credit, He met the police
Kaddour Al-Sharif was released on October 29. After a member of the public saw him in Finsbury Park, north London, police arrested him.
He was convicted of indecent exposure in November 2024 and sentenced to 18 months in prison. The Algerian was also added to the country’s sex offender registry for five years.
It is understood that Kaddour Al-Sharif remained in the UK after his tourist visa expired in 2019 and was in the early stages of deportation proceedings.
William Smith was released on Monday (3/11), after being sentenced to prison the same day. He was sentenced to 45 months in prison for multiple fraud offences.
Hadush Kibato, who arrived in the UK on a small boat and was arrested for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while they were staying in a refugee hotel, was mistakenly released from Chelmsford prison in Essex. He was later arrested and deported.
credit, Essex Police
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told the BBC: “The vast majority of criminals who are wrongly released are quickly returned to prison, and we will do everything we can to work with the police to catch the few who remain in the community.”
Justice Minister David Lammy had promised to impose the “tightest ever controls” to prevent further errors after Hadush Kibato was mistakenly released last month.
Earlier, opposition Justice Minister Robert Jenrick said that the missing prisoners reveal “the incompetence of this government.”
“The task of uncovering the facts should not be left to journalists. (Justice Minister) David Lammy needs to clarify how many prisoners were released by mistake and how many are still at large,” he said.
Liberal Democrat spokeswoman Jess Brown-Fuller said “every resource” must be used to search for the prisoners, describing the situation as a “disgrace and complete chaos”.
During the week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “angry and frustrated” over the issues.
Speaking publicly about the first prisoner releases, the Labor Prime Minister attributed the overburden on the prison system to the “failures” of the previous Conservative government, but added: “I recognize it is our responsibility to step in and address this.”
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