Daniel Khalife pleads guilty to prison escape

Former British army soldier Daniel Khalife has pleaded guilty to escaping from Wandsworth Prison last September.

He had originally pleaded not guilty to the charge, and is in the middle of giving evidence at his trial.

This morning he had the charge put to him again and pleaded guilty, with the jury returning a guilty verdict on the charge of escaping from lawful custody.

His trial on three other charges is continuing.

These are collecting and communicating information useful to an enemy, namely Iran; collecting the names of Special Forces soldiers that would be useful for terrorism and perpetrating a bomb hoax at his army barracks.

Daniel Khalife’s trial began last month, and he has already given evidence for three days.

During that evidence he admitted escaping from Wandsworth Prison in London by hanging in a makeshift sling under a food delivery lorry, concealed by the tailgate.

He dropped out from under the lorry near Wandsworth roundabout and disappeared into the capital. He was recaptured three days later after a high-profile manhunt.

He told the jury that he escaped because he was being held on the vulnerable prisoners unit where most inmates are sex offenders, and because he had been warned that “terrorists” in Wandsworth Prison would try to attack him.

He said he believed that if he escaped he would be put in the high security unit at Belmarsh Prison.

An audit found 81 security failings at Wandsworth Prison after the escape.

The prison’s Independent Monitoring Board said a security audit identified “81 points of failure” and resulted in “long overdue” upgrades being made to CCTV cameras which had not worked for more than a year.

The jury has heard that Daniel Khalife joined the Army at 16, and had reached out to a man linked to Iranian intelligence aged 17. He then contacted MI6 saying he wanted to be a double agent.

He has told the jury all the information he gave the Iranians was “fake” or “useless”.

He denies gathering information useful to an enemy, collecting a list of Special Forces soldiers that would be useful for terrorism, and perpetrating a bomb hoax.

His evidence and the trial continue.