Exclusive
HUNT TWIST
JAILBREAK terror suspect Daniel Khalife has specialist military escape and evasion training from his spell in the Army, The Sun can reveal.
Khalife, 21, learned how to avoid capture during his time with the Royal Signals at Blandford barracks.
4
4
He strapped himself to the bottom of a food delivery lorry to make an audacious escape from Wandsworth Prison on Wednesday.
Our exclusive picture shows Khalife — who served in 16 Signal Regiment — with headphones around his neck at the camp in Dorset.
Britain’s most senior police officer, Sir Mark Rowley said yesterday that the breakout was “clearly pre-planned” and could have been an inside job.
An ex-inmate at Wandsworth — which previously held tennis star Boris Becker — told The Sun the South West London jail was “riddled with corruption” and security was “virtually non-existent”.
Read More on Daniel Khalife
Another said the fugitive often bragged “he was going to be famous”.
As the manhunt entered its fourth day, police last night urged a shop assistant said to have spotted Khalife in Putney, South West London, to get in touch with them.
The newsagent is said to have claimed he saw a man he thought was Khalife jumping into a black vehicle a mile from the prison.
Londoner Khalife — accused of spying for Iran — worked in the jail’s kitchen and fled wearing his chef’s uniform.
Most read in The Sun
He is said to have suffered burns to his face during his escape.
He joined the Army in 2019 before being booted out in May after he was accused of planting a fake bomb at an RAF base and gathering information that might be useful to terrorists or enemies of the UK.
He has denied the charges against him.
The Signaller underwent SERE — Survive, Evade, Resist and Escape — training during his service.
The course teaches recruits how to avoid population centres, cameras and main roads — and stay “off-grid” while trying to find friendly forces.
It has led to fears that Khalife — who completed basic infantry training and specialist signals courses —— could be evading police by relying on survival skills he learned in the corps.
It is understood the SERE 1 training Khalife received often includes a one-hour tuition video from ex-SAS soldier Chris Ryan, who wrote the 1995 book The One That Got Away.
A defence source said: “It is only the basic course, but it could be useful to a fugitive from justice.”
Former comrades described Khalife as the “class clown” and a “competent but not exceptional soldier” who was funny and well-liked.
One soldier who served with him said: “He was smart and manipulative and had a knack of making you trust him without realising why.”
The UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation said Khalife should have been held in a more secure jail than Wandsworth.
Jonathan Hall KC said: “How did someone who was suspected of espionage — a crime against the state — end up in that position?”
Met Police chief Sir Mark also questioned why the on-remand terror suspect was not held at a higher security Category A prison.
He said Khalife could have had help escaping and that cops were probing prison staff and inmates.
He told LBC radio: “It is clearly pre-planned — the fact he could strap himself on to the bottom of the wagon. There’s obviously some logistics involved.”
He added that a prison escape is “unlikely to be something you do on the spur of the moment”.
A ex-inmate at the 1,600-prisoner jail told The Sun: “Someone could easily have helped him. The jail is under-staffed and corrupt.
“He had a plum job in the kitchen and could easily have walked the 100 metres to where that truck would have been without being challenged. The security is lax and bordering on non-existent.”
An inmate who worked with Khalife in the kitchens — said the former soldier often unloaded deliveries.
Roofer Chris Jones, 53 — who, was released in June after being acquitted after seven months on remand — told BBC London Khalife “didn’t come across as a criminal mastermind”.
He added: “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’.”
It is thought Khalife made a strap from a plastic mattress cover to fastened himself to the Bidfood lorry.
The vehicle left HMP Wandsworth at 7.32am on Wednesday. Khalife was declared missing at 7.50am.
Police were notified at 8.15am and the lorry was stopped at 8.37am.
CCTV footage later emerged of the van driving along a road in London.
Cops initially focused their search on Richmond Park, six miles from the Victorian jail. But there are fears Khalife could have fled the country.
He lived in a £450,000 two-bed flat in neighbouring Kingston with his twin sister until three years ago.
He went to Teddington School — whose former pupils include actress Keira Knightley. He was a “loner” who left with a clutch of GCSEs.
Khalife’s parents are separated. None of his relatives have spoken publicly since his escape.
Police have been deluged with potential sightings and received 50 calls in just two hours on Thursday.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk has ordered an independent inquiry into the escape.
And Steve Gillan, general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association, told The Sun: “I don’t know if it was an inside job, but it is clear there have been a catalogue of errors which the Prison Service will have to look into.
“Wandsworth is massively under-staffed and under-resourced.”
Read More on The Sun
A report into the jail by Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said it was close to being “overwhelmed”.
He called it a “crumbling, overcrowded, vermin-infested prison”.
4
4
Topics