Daniel Khalife ‘tried lorry escape plan 10 days before manhunt’ but failed

HMP Wandsworth escapee Daniel Khalife allegedly tried to attempted to break out of prison 10 days before he actually did, but failed, according to a fellow prisoner.

The 21-year-old terror suspect escaped the south west London prison by strapping himself to a delivery lorry on Wednesday (September 6) which resulted in a four-day man hunt for the fugitive.

It has now been claimed Khalife allegedly tried to flee Wandsworth prison 10 days earlier on August 31 by binding himself to a food delivery lorry but the straps snapped on his first attempt, reports The Mirror.

Learning from his first attempt, the jailbird allegedly reinforced the straps and ultimately found the materials that would successfully break free from the prison.

A prisoner who served alongside Khalife, 21 as he was held on remand for terror and spying offences told the Mail Online : “He always used to brag about escaping from prison. He used to say 'Just watch me!' It was an open secret because he was so blatant about it. I'm surprised none of the guards reported him. Someone is going to get it in the neck for this.”

Sources told The Sun on Sunday about the previous escape and how the straps had broken.

Khalife was caught by anti-terror police after they and MI5 and MI6 combined forces, bugged phones, and raided a "safe house". His time on the lam ended at 10.41am yesterday, an undercover officer pulled him from a bike as he cycled along a canal towpath.

As Khalife was pinned to a bridge while being detained, he was said to be laughing and winked at witnesses along the Greenford canal path. In a video taken by Andrews of Khalife sitting on the floor surrounded by officers, laughing can be heard in the background.

The arrest came after security sources said that intercepted communications from bugged phones led dozens of police officers to a house in Richmond, South-West London, where they were convinced the ex-soldier Khalife was hiding.

Khalife will now appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday, September 11.

The Met Police issued the following statement: "On the 6th day of September 2023, then being a prisoner in his Majesty’s prison at Wandsworth, being remanded in custody pending trial as ordered at the Central Criminal Court on the 21st day of July 2023, escaped, contrary to common law.

Khalife was arrested on a towpath near Rowdell Road, Northolt on Saturday, 9 September following a policing operation led by officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.

He was charged on Sunday, 10 September."

Two guards at Wandsworth Prison have been suspended following his dramatic escape. It is understood both were involved in overseeing the exit of the Bidfood catering vehicle from the prison grounds.

This morning Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said that around 40 inmates of Category B HMP Wandsworth have been moved out of the prison amid an investigation into how Daniel Khalife escaped.

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