Sir Mark Rowley has said detectives will explore the possibility Daniel Khalife was helped by fellow inmates because his jail break was “clearly pre-planned”. The Metropolitan Police commissioner said police will also examine whether Khalife was helped to flee HMP Wandsworth by its own guards.

Khalife, 21, who is accused of gathering information for Iran, went missing in his cook’s uniform from the prison on Wednesday (September 6), sparking extra security checks at major transport hubs.

Asked if police are looking into whether Khalife’s escape was an “inside job”, Sir Mark said: “It is a question. Did anyone inside the prison help him? Other prisoners, guard staff? Was he helped by people outside the walls or was it simply all of his own creation?”

Sir Mark told LBC it was “odd” Khalife was not held in a maximum security prison.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism commander said it was “testament to the ingenuity” of Khalife that there have been no confirmed sightings since he escaped prison.

READ MORE… ‘I’m a former detective – here’s my theory on how Daniel Khalife vanished’

Dominic Murphy said he was keeping an “open mind” as to whether Khalife had received support from somebody to escape prison and whether he had managed to leave the country.

He said more than 150 investigators and police staff from counter terrorism command working in London on investigation and officers had received more than 50 calls from the public which had provided “some really valuable lines of inquiry”.

Mr Murphy said: “This was a really busy area of London and we’ve had no confirmed sightings in any of that information, which is a little unusual, and perhaps testament to Daniel Khalife’s ingenuity in his escape and some of his movements after his escape.”

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Sunak quizzed over Wandsworth prison governor

Rishi Sunak has been asked whether he has confidence in the governor of HMP Wandsworth.

The PM, speaking to broadcasters in New Delhi, said: “This is obviously something that people will be focused on and I want to reassure people the police are working night and day to recapture the individual.

“Thankfully, these incidents are extremely rare.

“The Justice Secretary has initiated already an internal inquiry into specific circumstances around his escape. And it would be right to just let that go through so we know exactly what happens.”

Pushed again, he insisted that it was important to “establish the facts first”, adding: “The detail of what’s happening is being established as I speak by the Justice Secretary right now.”

Wandsworth prison ‘really needs closing’

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, has said HMP Wandsworth “really needs closing” .

Mr Taylor issued a report into the prison last year which revealed an increase in violence and use of force by guards.

It also highlighted “squalid” living conditions, overcrowding and understaffing.

Mr Taylor, speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sky News earlier today, said the prison should be closed “in an ideal world”, but due to the current “crisis” in prison places this is not possible.

He said there are only just enough places for prisoners coming in and most Wandsworth inmates were locked up for 22 hours a day.

The Chief Inspector added that any hopes of prisoners being rehabilitated were “fanciful”.

Mr Taylor added prisons had a “critical duty in terms of public protection”, but efforts were being hampered by the “revolving door of people coming in and out of prison”.

Khalife’s army training will work against search efforts

A retired police sergeant who stars on Channel 4’s Hunted series has said the UK has the “best military in the world”, which could work against the Metropolitan Police as officers attempt to find Khalife.

Mel Thomas, who is a ground hunter on the popular TV programme, said it will be down to the “resilience” of the terror suspect, but the hot UK weather will make it more comfortable if he is hiding “in plain sight”.

Mr Thomas, 54, who served in the police for 30 years, said: “What you’ve got to consider is that we consider ourselves to have the best military in the world, so he’s had the best training – you can’t dispute that.

“Because you’re no longer in the Army or in the armed forces, it doesn’t mean you become untrained overnight, that experience is always with you.

“What the organisations have got against them is it’s good weather, it’s not cold at night, so even sleeping rough is not going to be uncomfortable.

“You could happily find somewhere comfortable and, as an ex-military individual, he’ll be used to sleeping outside.

“What will come into play more than anything else will be the individual’s resilience.”

Khalife’s imprisonment at category B prison ‘mind boggling’

A former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation has said Khalife’s escape “causes great concern at many levels”.

Lord Carlile, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, said it is good the Government is carrying out an independent review, and “it causes concern on why the perpetrator was in that prison, whether he escaped solo or if there were state actors – possibly Iran”.

“Wandsworth prison was 31 percent short in manpower and particularly bad at weekends… The evidence I’ve seen shows the Government did nothing to address that problem.”

A crossbench peer, Lord Carlile added that the idea someone was judged for spying for Iran and terrorism offences was able to work in a Category B prison in the kitchen with access to knives was “mind-boggling”.

On how Khalife planned his escape, Carlile said: “One of the possibilities for escape is a hostage situation and knives play into that kind of situation.

“[There will] have to be an audit of the prison, and more general issues about the management of the prisoner.”

There are questions over cuts link to escape, Sadiq Khan says

Asked about the manhunt for Khalife, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said there were questions about the “link between government austerity and this man escaping.”

He said: “There’s a question in relation to the medium and long term about the link between government austerity and this man escaping.

“I know from my own experience, as the member of parliament previously for Tooting where Wandsworth prison is, (there are) big problems in relation to it being overcrowded and being a Victorian prison, lack of investment, lack of enough staff and those questions will need answering from the Government.”

Iranian sleeper cell suspected of busting Daniel Khalife out of Wandsworth prison

Sources have told the Express Khalife “is suspected of spying for the Iranian regime”, raising concerns they may have infiltrated the chronically under-staffed prison in order to spring him free.

A security expert has said it was “almost certain” that Khalife had inside help to flee the prison.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “All the indications are that this was an orchestrated job and not an opportunistic escape. It is almost certain that he had some inside help from the prison.”

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Ex-detective shares theory of how Khalife disappeared

Former detective and TV star Peter Bleksley has revealed what the missing terror suspect likely did after he escaped prison.

He said the discovery of the straps he used to attach himself to the underside of the van completely changed the face of the manhunt for Khalife.

He said: “If he had just taken an opportunity with no planning, what he would be doing now is trying to make contacts and probably scrambling around in bins for some half-eaten food.”

Mr Bleksley added Khalife would also have to steal some trousers to replace the red and white chequed ones he had been wearing, which meant he would have to go into a shop.

He continued: “At first I was hoping he would be found on CCTV at two o’clock in the morning, scavenging a bit of Kentucky Fried Chicken out of a bin.

“But then they said about the straps. That says to me, this was planned. And that says outside help.

“It means they have a completely different job on their hands. It’s undoubtedly possible that he’s already left on a plane.”

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Khalife’s escape ‘clearly pre-planned’, Met chief says

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has said Khalife’s escape was “clearly pre-planned” and is “extremely concerning”.

He told LBC: “It is clearly pre-planned, the fact that he could strap himself onto the bottom of the wagon.”

Sir Mark added a prison escape is “unlikely to be something you do on the spur of the moment”.

Asked if police are looking into whether it was an “inside job”, the commissioner said: “It is a question. Did anyone inside the prison help him? Other prisoners, guard staff? Was he helped by people outside the walls or was it simply all of his own creation?”

He called it “extremely concerning” that Khalife is “on the loose”.

Asked whether he was surprised to learn that the terror suspect was in a Category B prison, Sir Mark said it did “seem odd” on first inspection.

The commissioner told LBC the hunt for Khalife is a “massive operation” involving “well into three figures of officers” as well as help from forces around the country and from the border force.

He added: “At the moment we are still really keen to get any reports from members of the public.”

Dramatic moment cops swoop on and arrest Daniel Khalife lookalike at train station

A photograph shows at least five police officers swoop on the unsuspecting passenger at Banbury Station in Oxfordshire on Thursday.

It is understood the man arrested at the train station was then de-arrested when officers established he was not the terror suspect.

Train passenger Oliver, in his 20s, was left waiting outside the station while the incident took place and took a photograph of the police pouncing on the man.

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Fixing prisons won’t happen overnight, Cleverly says

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the Government recognises the need for a modern prison estate which is why six extra prisons are being developed with an extra 22,000 prison places.

He told the BBC another 5,000 prison officers will be recruited, adding: “We recognise that with something as significant and complicated as the prison estate , it is not an overnight fix.”

Mr Cleverly dismissed the idea that Khalife’s escape was an indictment of the state of the prison estate.

He said: “The facts don’t back that up because the number of escapes has reduced enormously. It was 10 times higher under the Labour government than it is now… This is a very rare occasion [and] we take it incredibly seriously.”

James Cleverly refuses to say if he is confident Khalife will be found

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly declined to comment on whether he was confident Khalife will be found.

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “We do have fantastic security services and police services. I don’t think it would be useful or credible for me to to speculate.

“The important thing is that we let the police, the investigators do their work.”

Richmond Park search was linked to manhunt, police confirm

The Metropolitan Police has confirmed “police activity” in Richmond Park was linked to Khalife amid reports officers had been there overnight.

Prison officers rep blames cuts for Wandsworth conditions

Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers Association, has said “cuts have consequences” amid the row over how Daniel Khalife was able to escape.

Asked if he saw a link between conditions at the prison and Khalife’s escape, Mr Fairhurst said: “I think the clear link is going back to 2010 when the Tory Government came into power and hit us all with austerity measures.

“They removed £900million from the budget. They brought in a voluntary exit scheme. We’re now in a position where we’ve lost over a hundred thousand years of experience because of staff leaving and experienced staff continue to leave because of working conditions and the levels of violence.

“We’re now unable to retain the staff we recruit. We know from the Chief Inspector himself that Wandsworth is critically understaffed.

“These all have knock on effects and as we’ve said as a union, cuts have consequences.”

Parliament was told on Thursday (September 7) that security posts at HMP Wandsworth were manned at the time of Khalife’s escape.

But Mr Fairhurst said the last time he visited the jail there were 1,600 prisoners when they are only certified to lock up 979.

He said: “They are chronically overcrowded. To safely supervise 1,600 prisoners – when I visited they only had 69 prison officers on duty.

“If you’re telling me that the gate area was fully staffed, what are those staffing levels? I know they should have had at least 120 prison officers on duty yesterday and they had nowhere near that. They had less than a hundred prison officers, but more importanly, what training had the staff had in those critical areas.

“Not every area is staffed by a prison officer. The kitchen’s civilianised. We were privatised years ago so what sort of training did the civilian staff have in the kitchen. Were they alone working in the kitchen? They shouldn’t be alone working at all.

“These are the questions that need to be answered.”

Mr Fairhurst was reacting to the HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, saying HMP Wandsworth should be shut down.

He said: “I’m very surprised to hear that… In think that’s nothing more than a cheap headline… What he should be saying is, ‘We need a major refurbishment programme in place at Wandsworth. We need to modernise it, make it fit for purpose and we need to recruit more staff and, more importanly, retain more staff… We need investment in our prisons, we don’t need to close them.”

Asked how a terror suspect would have been allowed to work in a kitchen, Mr Fairhurst said: “Unfortunately, over the past 12 months although we’ve recruited 4,000 prison officers we’ve only got a net gain of 700. That tells you everything about the working conditions in our prisons.

“How did this person end up working in these kitchens? An internal risk assessment would have been done and he would have been deemed suitable to work in that area and that’s because he was classed as low risk.”

Insane CCTV shows moment Daniel Khalife escapes Wandsworth prison ‘clinging to van’

CCTV footage has captured the moment police believe Daniel Khalife escaped from HMP Wandsworth – while clinging to the bottom of a food delivery truck.

Video footage shows the van – reportedly loaded with its unusual cargo – following a route through South London.

Van owners BidFood have since confirmed one of their vehicles was used in the escape, and police are now seeking people with knowledge of where it may have stopped.

Read the full story

Lorry carrying Wandsworth terror suspect caught on CCTV

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