Daniel Khalife, a former British Army soldier, was charged this January with three offences related to terrorism and espionage and was held awaiting trial at Wandsworth prison, a category B prison in south London.
He is accused of placing a fake bomb in his barracks in Stafford at the beginning of January, obtaining data from a Ministry of Defence personnel system in August 2021 that could have been useful to a terrorist, and, more generally, collecting or communicating data that could be “useful to an enemy”, understood to be Iran.
His escape raises several questions.
What was a terror suspect doing in a medium-security prison?
Serious terrorist suspects are normally held at Belmarsh high-security prison, raising the question of why Khalife was detained at Wandsworth. He was able to escape from the prison kitchen, where he had been working, on Wednesday morning, on the underside of a delivery van.
Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, told MPs he had asked for an urgent inquiry into why Khalife was at Wandsworth, although he said it was not the case that prisoners held on terror offences were always held in high-security prisons, indicating that Khalife may not have been judged a serious flight risk. Khalife had never been held in Belmarsh, contrary to earlier reporting, Chalk said.
How was it possible for Khalife to escape so easily?
Prison breaks may be the frequent topic of TV and films but are rare in the UK, with only one recorded in England and Wales in 2021/22, making Khalife’s flight all the more surprising. It appears that the terror suspect had got a coveted job working as a kitchen chef and, Chalk told MPs on Thursday, that strapping had been found on the underside of the van by which Khalife escaped.
An urgent inquiry is proceeding into how Khalife managed to get out using such a simple method. Normal procedure would be for vans coming in and out of a jail to be checked on the underside using mirrors, and a person hiding underneath should have been very easy to detect. Security staff were on duty at the time, Chalk said, but it is not clear if the relevant procedures were properly followed.
How long did it take for prison staff to alert police?
Media reports overnight had suggested it was an hour before staff at Wandsworth prison alerted the police, a critical time gap that would have given Khalife extra options as he fled. This wasn’t quite proved correct, but there was an arguably significant time gap, which could have given him more time to get away.
Police said on Thursday that the van left Wandsworth prison at 7.32am and police were notified at about 8.15am, an interval of 43 minutes. The van in which he fled was pinpointed at 8.37am about three miles away from the prison, without the fugitive underneath it. Any delay in the prison alerting the police would be among the topics of an urgent inquiry, Chalk told MPs.
Was under-resourcing at Wandsworth a factor?
Prison watchdogs, Labour and unions all argue that security at the Victorian-era prison, described by inspectors are “crumbling, overcrowded and vermin-infested”, was compromised by staff shortages. Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, said on Thursday “the issue that we are particularly concerned about is there are too many prisoners in Wandsworth for the amount of staff who are there”.
The inspectorate had previously concluded, after an unannounced inspection in September 2021, that staffing shortfalls at Wandsworth were preventing the running of “a decent and predictable regime”, with more than 30% of prison officers “either absent or unable to work their full duties”.
Chalk, however, emphasised that “on the specific issue of staffing, the positions were staffed” on the morning of the escape and said the question was whether “the protocols were applied”. The government has announced plans to build 20,000 new prison places but budgets are down 11% in real terms since 2010/11 when the Conservative-led coalition came to power.
Could there have been collusion to help him escape?
A former prison governor, John Podmore, who headed Belmarsh and Brixton prisons, said the escape of Khalife from Wandsworth could “possibly” have been an inside job in a BBC interview. However, there is no firm indication this was the case, although the plan to escape under a delivery van, and the use of strapping, suggest some degree of sophistication and premeditation.
Counter-terrorism police were continuing with a number of strands of inquiry on Thursday, including the possibility of collusion, although there was nothing to suggest that this was a major line of the investigation and search.
