Daniel Khalife: Met Police confirm new sightings of escaped HMP Wandsworth prisoner in West London

Police have confirmed new sightings of absconder Daniel Khalife. The former soldier, who is awaiting trial in relation to terrorism offences, is believed to have escaped from HMP Wandsworth on Wednesday morning (September 6).

The Metropolitan Police said officers would be in the Chiswick area in west London to carry out “intensive search activity” on September 9 in the hunt for the escaped terror suspect.

In a statement, the force said: “This activity comes after intelligence-led activity and some confirmed sightings in that area overnight, including calls from members of the public.”

The Met Police said Khalife is believed to be wearing a black baseball cap, black t-shirt and dark-coloured bottoms, carrying a small bag or case.

The statement added: “We urge members of the public in that area to remain vigilant and call 999 immediately should they see Khalife, or if they have any information that could assist the search. Whilst we advise members of the public not to approach Khalife if they see him, we still assess that he does not pose a threat to the wider public.”

The news comes as Conservative former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland said there must be more prison space built to allow the closure of out of date sites such as HMP Wandsworth. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s important to emphasise that an escape like this is a pretty exceptional event, it brings back to mind escapes like Ronnie Biggs and George Blake from distant history.

“However, there is no doubt that our Prison Service is a forgotten service in our country. It’s a service that either people don’t want to talk about or just don’t know enough about.

“We run the prisons service at a hugely hot rate, about 98% capacity and I think that isn’t a desirable state of affairs. We need more capacity to allow for flexibility.”

He said new facilities are not being built fast enough to “close the sort of prisons like Wandsworth and other London prisons that are well past their sell by date”.

Former director general of the Prisons Service, Phil Wheatley, also criticised what he called the “mess” in the prison system on the radio show. He said: “It has highlighted that the prison system is in a degree of chaos at the moment.

“It is very difficult to make anything work well when you are just managing day by day to fumble your way through with too many prisoners and not enough staff. So, I would be surprised in the long run if that wasn’t one of the factors that led to things not working right.

“The system is just about at maximum capacity, it’s overflowing out into police cells, that’s driven by longer sentences. The Government has been very keen on longer sentences for criminals but they haven’t supplied the places with enough staff to supervise them, nor have they managed to maintain existing prisons.

“They’ve spent what capital they’ve got on trying to build new places, meanwhile some of the older accommodation has had to be taken out of use because it can’t be maintained – so it’s all a bit of a mess, it doesn’t look like a well-planned, thought through policy that has been resourced.”