Daniel Khalife – live: Suspect used bed sheets to strap himself to van in Wandsworth prison escape, court hears

Daniel Khalife has been charged with escaping from custody at HMP Wandsworth, the Metropolitan Police have said.

Khalife, 21, was dramatically arrested on Saturday in the northwest London suburb of Northolt.

His capture followed a mass land and air search over four days after he went missing from the prison on Wednesday.

He will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday 11 September charged as follows:

“On the sixth day of September 2023, then being a prisoner in His Majesty’s prison at Wandsworth, being remanded in custody pending trial as ordered at the Central Criminal Court on the 21st day of July 2023, escaped, contrary to common law.”

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Guy Walters explores a long line of theatrical prison breaks as Daniel Khalife earns a place in criminal history - alongside members of the IRA, a train robber and an ex-M16 agent.

Ronnie Biggs, am infamous train robber, also escaped from Wandsworth prison in 1965. While Biggs did not use a rope, he did use a rope ladder to scale a prison wall, which had been slung over by accomplices.

While his fellow prisoners staged a scuffle to distract the wardens, Biggs hotfooted it over the wall. On the other side was not a boat, but a removals lorry, through the roof of which Biggs climbed and away to freedom.

Even though his gang were a bunch of violent larcenous thugs, Biggs enjoyed a certain folk hero status while living in exile in Brazil, from where he eventually returned to be imprisoned once more in 2001.

Read about the other famous escapes here

Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk said on Sunday that the preliminary findings of his investigation into London’s Victorian jail have found that the relevant procedures and security staff were in place.

But he said dozens of individuals on remand have been moved to different sites “out of an abundance of caution” amid questions over why a former soldier accused of a terror offence was not in the highest security prison.

Mr Chalk told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “Out of an abundance of caution, some prisoners there – some of those on remand – have been moved (this week).

“Additional resources have, of course, gone into Wandsworth, so there’s additional governor support, a former governor with particular expertise in security.

“But also, out of an abundance of caution, around 40 prisoners have been moved just while we get to the bottom of what took place in Wandsworth. That is a sensible, precautionary measure.”

Mr Chalk, discussing the preliminary findings of a review he issued, said the investigation has looked into whether protocols were in place relating to the unloading of food from a van and searching the delivery vehicle.

“Those protocols were in place, point one,” he said. “And point two, the relevant security staff were also in place.

“Plainly what we’ve yet to establish is whether those protocols were followed.”

He said he will set out “next week” the terms of reference of the separate independent investigation to ensure that the conclusions are “rock solid”.

Runner, Frank Noon, saw Wandsworth Prison terror suspect Daniel Abed Khalife further down Thames hours before his arrest in Greenford.

Noon saw the 21-year-old “lying on his back” while he was running along the river.

“It was only when I saw him three hours later and he was wearing the same clothes that I thought that’s the same guy that’s weird,” Mr Noon told Sky News.

Khalife was tackled off his bike by a police officer on a canal towpath and then arrested, ending a 75-hour nationwide manhunt.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed the former soldier was arrested by a plainclothes counter-terrorism officer near Rowdell Road in west London just before 11am on Saturday (9 September) morning and is currently in their custody.

An inmate has been stabbed at HMP Wandsworth days after Daniel Khalife’s escape, the Metropolitan Police has said.

Police were called at around 3.20pm on Sunday to reports that an inmate had been assaulted inside the prison.

Officers and the London Ambulance Service attended and a 24-year-old was taken to hospital to be treated for a stab wound.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed his condition was not life-threatening and no arrests have been made.

Report:

Daniel Abed Khalife will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday after he was charged with escaping from custody at HMP Wandsworth.

He was arrested on a canal towpath in west London at 10.41am on Saturday after being pulled off a push bike by a plain-clothes counter-terrorism officer.

His detention followed a massive land and air search over four days after he went missing from the prison on Wednesday.

Prior to his alleged escape, Khalife was on remand at HMP Wandsworth after being charged with terror offences in January.

Around 40 inmates of HMP Wandsworth have been moved out of the Category B jail, the justice secretary said yesterday.

The move comes amid outrage over Daniel Abed Khalife’s escape from the prison last week.

Alex Chalk told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme that a preliminary investigation into the Victorian prison had found that the relevant procedures and security staff were in place.

But he said dozens of individuals on remand have been moved to different sites “out of an abundance of caution” amid questions over why a former soldier accused of a terror offence was not in the highest security prison.

Daniel Khalife has been charged with escaping from custody at HMP Wandsworth, the Metropolitan Police have said.

Khalife, 21, was dramatically arrested on Saturday in the northwest London suburb of Northolt.

His capture followed a mass land and air search over four days after he went missing from the prison on Wednesday.

He will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday 11 September charged as follows:

“On the sixth day of September 2023, then being a prisoner in His Majesty’s prison at Wandsworth, being remanded in custody pending trial as ordered at the Central Criminal Court on the 21st day of July 2023, escaped, contrary to common law.”

Rich Booth has more:

Two Wandsworth Prison guards have been suspended days after Daniel Abed Khalife went missing from the facility.

This comes as officials hunt for accomplices involved in aiding and abetting his alleged escape.

According to LBC, the guards are believed to have been involved in overseeing the exit of a catering vehicle which Khalife is accused of using to escape the prison.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt raised concerns over the staffing problems in Wandsworth Prison months before terror accused Daniel Abed Khalife managed to escape from the jail.

Mr Hunt escalated a complaint to Wandsworth’s governor Katie Price in April this year, after one of his constituents wrote to him about the lax standards of staffing inside.

He also raised the issue with prisons minister Damian Hinds after he did not receive a response to his complaint to Ms Price, reported The Telegraph.

According to the outlet, the constituent, who was held on remand for about eight months, told the chancellor about the prison conditions in six page-long letter. The staff did “as little as possible” when there was no manager on duty, claimed the ex-prisoner in his letter, adding that there were no consequences for poor performance.