The second of two prisoners accidentally released from HMP Wandsworth has been arrested after a dramatic detention in which he denied his identity – only to be told by police he had a “very distinctive wonky nose”.
Brahim Kaddour Cherif, 24, was detained in Finsbury Park on Friday morning, ending a week-long manhunt that began when police were finally informed of the prison’s administrative blunder.
Footage of the arrest by Sky News captured Cherif initially claiming “I’m not Brahim” as officers handcuffed him on Blackstock Road.
When an officer explained he was being arrested because he looked “identical to the person released from custody”, Cherif continued to deny his identity.
The officer told him: “I’ve had a look at the photo, you’ve got a very distinctive wonky nose which looks the same as the person.”
Police held up a photo of Cherif next to his face before re-cuffing his hands behind his back and searching his backpack, which contained a laptop, umbrella and wallet.
Before being placed in the police van, Cherif turned to onlookers and said: “It’s not my fu*king fault, they released me… the judge he told me you are released.”
Mistaken release
Cherif was mistakenly released on October 29 when prison staff confused him with another inmate due for release. Prison authorities did not inform police until the afternoon of November 4 – six days after the error.
Nadjib Mekdhia, a 50-year-old homeless Algerian man, recognised Cherif from newspaper photographs while walking past a cafe on Blackstock Road on Friday morning.
“I am glad he is in prison. We do not need people like that in our community,” Mekdhia told reporters. “I am proud Algerian. I am proud British. We do the right thing.”
He called 999 immediately after spotting Cherif “just hanging around” near the Algerian cafe. Police arrived within minutes and made the arrest at 11:30am.
Cherif was arrested for being unlawfully at large and also on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker in relation to a previous incident, according to the Met Police.
He was serving a sentence for trespass with intent to steal and had previously been convicted of indecent exposure. He is understood to be in the process of being deported after overstaying his visa.
The blunder was the second mistaken release from Wandsworth in a week. The other prisoner handed himself in earlier this week.
The back-to-back administrative errors occurred while Wandsworth’s governor has been absent since August, leaving the Category B prison without permanent leadership.
Justice Secretary David Lammy said he was “appalled at the rate of releases in error” and has ordered new release checks and an independent investigation into systemic failures at the prison.
The Ministry of Justice has not yet commented on what disciplinary action, if any, will be taken over the administrative errors.
