A former soldier who absconded from a prison kitchen by strapping himself to the underside of a delivery van has been recaptured.
Daniel Abed Khalife, 21, was arrested in Chiswick, west London, on Saturday having gone missing in his cook’s uniform from HMP Wandsworth in London on Wednesday morning.
His escape sparked a major police hunt involving 150 counter-terrorism officers, with ports and airports placed on alert and some passengers facing delays as extra checks were carried out. Officers also urgently tried to establish whether the 21-year-old had help fleeing from HMP Wandsworth.
The jail was put on lockdown after Khalife fled. The escape had a knock-on effect of disrupting court hearings for other defendants on remand at the south London site.
Khalife was being held at the category B prison awaiting trial for allegedly planting a fake bomb and gathering information that might be useful to terrorists or enemies of the UK. He has denied the three charges against him.
The Bidfood van, which he is believed to have strapped himself to the bottom of, left HMP Wandsworth at 7.32am on Wednesday. Khalife was declared missing at 7.50am, police were informed at 8.15am and the van was stopped at 8.37am in Upper Richmond Road. By Thursday, police had received more than 50 calls from the public but no confirmed sightings.
His escape provoked a furious political row with ministers criticised over cuts and staff shortages that have left potentially dangerous inmates in low-security prisons. Khalife’s presence in a category B prison when he had been charged with such serious offences also prompted concerns that other high-risk inmates might not be held in security conditions commensurate with their alleged crimes.
The chief inspector of prisons, the chair of parliament’s justice committee and the prison officers’ union, the POA, all said HMP Wandsworth was known to have staffing issues, adding to pressure on the government over Khalife’s escape, which Labour said “beggars belief”.
Among the charges Khalife faces is that he may have collected, recorded, published or communicated sensitive information that might have been useful to an enemy, in breach of the Official Secrets Act 1911. The country in question is understood to be Iran, although it is unclear how strong the link is alleged to be.
The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, has announced independent investigations into how Khalife escaped, why he was being held in a lower-security prison and whether other high-risk inmates may need to be moved from the jail. He said reviews would look into the placement and categorisation of all inmates at HMP Wandsworth and all held in the custodial estate charged with terrorism offences.
Chalk added: “No stone must be left unturned in getting to the bottom of what happened. Who was on duty that morning? In what roles, ranging from the kitchen to the prison gate? What protocols were in place? Were they followed?”
The ex-serviceman, formerly of Beacon Barracks, Beaconside, Stafford, is also accused of a criminal offence relating to the alleged bomb hoax. It is claimed he placed “three cannisters with wires on a desk in his accommodation” with the intention of inducing in another a belief this was “likely to explode or ignite and thereby cause personal injury or damage to property”.
A trial date for the terrorism charges has been set for 13 13 November at Woolwich crown court.