Lammy under pressure after two more prisoners mistakenly freed

David Lammy is under mounting pressure after two more prisoners, including a convicted foreign sex offender, were mistakenly freed days after the justice secretary introduced stringent checks for jails.

- Rajeev Syal Pippa Crerar Peter Walker

Lammy had refused multiple times to say whether any more prisoners had been released in error in a bruising session of prime minister's questions, having been ambushed with a string of pre-planned questions on the issue.

Almost immediately after the exchange it was revealed that Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a 24-year-old Algerian who had overstayed his visa, had been wrongly released from Wandsworth prison in south London last Wednesday, with the Metropolitan police informed only on Tuesday.

The same prison also accidentally freed William Smith, a 35-year-old fraudster, on Monday.

Described as white, bald and clean-shaven, Smith, known as Billy, was sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences on the day he was accidentally freed.

The latest errors come just weeks after Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian national, was accidentally freed from Chelmsford prison despite convictions for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman days after arriving in the UK in a small boat.

Lammy had ordered five pages of new checks for prison governors after the release of Kebatu, who was supposed to be removed to an immigration detention centre.

He was arrested in London and deported after being given a £500 discretionary payment.

The Guardian understands that Kaddour-Cherif was in prison for trespass with intent to steal but was convicted in November 2024 of indecent exposure linked to an incident in March that year. He was given an 18-month community order.

Kaddour-Cherif is understood to have entered the UK legally on a visit visa in 2019 but overstayed.

An "automatic probable overstayer" case was created by the Home Office in February 2020 and is, sources say, in the initial stages of the deportation process. Questions will be raised as to why he has not been removed from the UK five years after overstaying his visa.