Former soldier Daniel Abed Khalife has pleaded guilty to escaping from HMP Wandsworth and spending nearly four days on the run last September.
Khalife snuck out of the Category B prison by clinging onto the bottom of a food catering truck with a sling made from kitchen trousers. The highly-publicised nationwide manhunt ended in his arrest on a canal path by the Thames river.
He still denies all the other charges for which he is on trial. These include accusations of spying for Iran, collecting information on Special Forces soldiers which would be useful for terrorism, and carrying out a bomb hoax at his barracks.
Khalife first planned a fake escape for August 21 in a bid to be moved to a high-security unit (HSU). He told jurors that he wanted to be kept in the HSU at HMP Belmarsh in the belief that he would be safer there.
But after the fake escape was not reported to senior prison staff, Khalife decided a real escape was his only option, the court heard.
After prison staff alerted the force to the missing 21-year-old at 7.50am on Wednesday 6 September, a national search ensued over the next three-to-four days, which The Independent has shown on a map.
More than 150 Met officers and staff, as well as colleagues from forces across the country, worked “at pace around the clock” in pursuit of the terror suspect, receiving over 100 calls from members of the public.
A Bidfood van was stopped and searched by police just after 8.30am on the Upper Richmond Road in Putney. Officers discovered the strapping used by Khalife in his escape on the bottom of the vehicle.
“When the tail lift raised it covered me entirely,” Khalife told jurors in court. “If the makeshift sling wasn’t noticed, they’re hardly going to notice me.”
Richmond Park was scoured by police on the night of Thursday 7 September and into Friday, with helicopters seen circling overhead and sirens blaring in the area for hours.
Later on Friday, the Met confirmed a member of the public reported seeing Khalife walking away from a Bidfood van near Wandsworth Roundabout shortly after his escape from prison.
Police helicopters spent Friday night circling around the Thames in west London, with flight radar maps revealing one flying over Chiswick House and Grove Park.
The force then said earlier on Saturday 9 September that it would be focusing its search in Chiswick on Saturday after confirmed sightings in the area overnight.
75 hours after escaping with the food truck, the Metropolitan Police confirmed the former soldier was arrested by officers in Chiswick just before 11am on Saturday, a mere 45-minute drive away from the prison he escaped from on Wednesday morning.
Intelligence sources told The Independent it is “almost certain” he had “inside help” with his escape.
Police commissioner Mark Rowley said the escape was “clearly pre-planned” – pointing to “the fact [Khalife] could strap himself onto the bottom of the wagon”, referring to the delivery van Khalife used to flee.
With airports and ports installing additional security measures and holidaymakers reporting delays at border control, his escape has posed serious questions about the suitability of his incarceration at a Category B prison.
Prior to his initial arrest in January 2023, the 21-year-old had formerly been a serving soldier in the British Army since 2018 and had worked as a computer network engineer with the Royal Corps of Signals.
