GB News' Home and Security Editor Mark White has said Britain’s prison system is “an absolute mess” after a convicted sex offender who was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth was recaptured 10 days later.
Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was wrongly freed from the south London prison on October 29.
A manhunt was launched and officers confirmed he was arrested after being spotted by a member of the public in Blackstock Road, Islington.
Speaking on GB News, Mark White said: “It’s nonsense, I’ve said this repeatedly and it’s worth repeating.
Mark White delivered his verdict after the criminal was re-arrested
|GB NEWS
"Whether you break into the country in the back of a lorry or in a small boat, or you come in on a visa with the sole intent of staying in this country and living and working illegally you are an illegal immigrant.
"He is an illegal immigrant and there is a process underway to get him removed.
“But there are real questions for the Home Office here. Why on earth are you expediting it now?
"Why did you not do this years ago when you knew he was? It’s a mess.”
Mark added the blunder was part of a wider breakdown within Britain’s prison system, warning that dozens of violent and sexual offenders remain unaccounted for.
He said: “We’ve learnt that 90 violent and sexual offenders have been released in just one year.
It took a six day manhunt to find the sex offender
|SKY NEWS
"A very significant proportion of the mistakenly released prisoners in the year to March were people sent to prison for offences of violence or a sexual nature. That is of deep concern.”
Mark said the chaos had been “exacerbated” by overcrowding measures introduced under Labour, which saw some inmates freed after serving just 40 per cent of their sentence.
He added: “The net result of that was this almighty churn of people being released much earlier than expected.
"The Prison Service, in dealing with that, has had to go through a very complex, paper-based system. It’s confusion on top of chaos.”
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Justice Secretary David Lammy said: "I can confirm Brahim Kaddour-Cherif has been recaptured and is back in custody.
"My thanks are with the police and staff at HMPPS who have been working around the clock. We inherited a prison system in crisis and I'm appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing.
"I’m determined to grip this problem, but there is a mountain to climb which cannot be done overnight.
"That is why I have ordered new tough release checks, commissioned an independent investigation into systemic failures, and begun overhauling archaic paper-based systems still used in some prisons."
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