Daniel Khalife pleads guilty to Wandsworth prison escape halfway through trial

The former soldier used a makeshift sling to escape under a food delivery truck

Former soldier Daniel Khalife has pleaded guilty part way through his trial to escaping from HMP Wandsworth and spending four days on the run.

The 23-year-old had clung to the bottom of a food catering truck using a sling made from kitchen trousers, causing a major manhunt which saw him arrested on a canal towpath next to the Thames.

He continues to deny other charges, which include spying for Iran while working for the British army.

Mrs Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb told jurors she had asked Khalife if he wanted the prison escape charge to be put to him again.

When the charge was put to the former soldier, he replied: “I’m guilty.”

Daniel Khalife after his arrest on a canal towpath on 9 September 2023 (PA)

The court heard he planned a fake escape attempt for August 21 in the hope he would be moved to the HSU, but decided that a genuine escape was his only option after the incident was not reported to senior prison staff.

He told jurors that he had escaped in the hope he would be kept in a high-security unit (HSU) at a different prison, away from “sex offenders” and “terrorists” after his recapture.

Khalife wanted to be kept in the HSU at HMP Belmarsh – a prison within a prison holding some of the country’s most dangerous criminals – because he believed he would be safer there, the court heard.

Five days before his successful escape, he attached a sling to the underside of the lorry made from kitchen trousers and carabiners.

The sling “wasn’t spotted at Wandsworth gate or any other prison”, Khalife said.

Sketch of Khalife in court last month (Elizabeth Cook/PA)

“When the tail lift raised it covered me entirely,” he continued.

“If the makeshift sling wasn’t noticed, they’re hardly going to notice me.”

While on the run, Khalife bought clothes from Marks & Spencer and a coffee from McDonald’s, and walked beside the River Thames before being caught by police three days later.

“I accept that I left the prison and I didn’t have any permission,” he told jurors. “I was never a real spy.

“I would do anything to go back to my career (in the Army).”

Khalife denies charges contrary to the Official Secrets Act and Terrorism Act, and is accused of perpetrating a bomb hoax.

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