Former inmate dubs Daniel Khalife an 'odd sausage', says he isn't surprised he escaped

Chris Jones is a former HMP Wandsworth inmate. He has spoken to the BBC about working alongside the 21-year-old escapee who is still the focus of a nation-wide manhunt. Khalife escaped from the jail on Wednesday 6 September by strapping himself to the bottom of a lorry and has successfully evaded the police since.

Khalife described as an ‘odd sausage’

Jones, 53, was released from HMP in June and now works as a roofer. However, he hasn’t forgotten the exchanges he had with Khalife while he prepared food and the younger man unloaded deliveries from lorries.

Jones reports that Khalife had been brought in as a vulnerable prisoner to work in the kitchen. He told the BBC:

He did seem like an odd sausage. One lunchtime he came in saying that he was going be famous. I told him: 'I think you've got on the wrong bus, mate.

He explained that the young man would come to work with a comb and mirror, and regularly check his appearance. Overall though, Jones said he got on fine with Khalife, who seemed ‘quite down to earth and up for a laugh but didn't come across as a criminal mastermind’.

Understaffing at HMP

Jones said he isn’t that surprised that an inmate managed to get out. He claimed that the organisation of the jail is hectic, which weakens security. Once, the whole jail was put on lockdown because an inmate was missing. Eventually it came to light that he was not missing, but had in fact been released and his departure simply hadn’t been properly logged.

Indeed, Jones went on to say that the staffing situation was responsible for the ‘diabolical conditions’ at the centre. He told the BBC that on one occasion, he was not let out of his cell for a fortnight, so had no exercise or shower, because staff ‘couldn’t or wouldn’t’ let him out.

Jones compared his 2023 experience with the last time he was in jail, in 1989-1990. He said it is definitely worse now. Jones spent seven months in these filthy conditions before being cleared of conspiracy to blackmail.

Police jumped on a Khalife look-a-like

The police detained a man who matched the description of the suspected terrorist on the platform of an Oxfordshire train station yesterday, Thursday 7 September. Amazingly, onlookers in the approaching train were not kept in the dark: an announcement informed them ‘We apologise for the delay but police are apprehending a suspected terrorist on the platform’.

Last night the man posted his fingerprint scan on X just to confirm he isn’t Khalife. He was upgraded to first-class as an apology and it seems he has taken it all pretty well:

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Sources used:

Daily Mail: Police hunting escaped terror suspect Daniel Khalife, 21, swoop on 'look-a-like' at Oxfordshire train station

BBC: Daniel Khalife: HMP Wandsworth inmate recalls kitchen colleague