Inside ‘terrorist’ Daniel Khalife’s jailbreak 'straight out of WW2 film' with him hanging from bottom of grocery van

PRISON bosses have been branded the object of ridicule after a terror suspect escaped by clinging to the underside of a delivery truck yesterday.

Daniel Abed Khalife, 22, was hanging upside down in his red checked chef’s trousers when the van was waved through the front gates of HMP Wandsworth in south west London.

Daniel Abed Khalifa was wearing a chef’s uniform when he escaped from prisonCredit: AP

Khalife was a prisoner at Wandsworth Prison Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

A search was later launched after he was noticed missing.

Security experts last night compared the former soldier’s Colditz-style escape to something you only see in “old World War Two movies”.

After serving breakfast to the stragglers, kitchen worker Khalifa went to the delivery area around 7:50 a.m., armed with improvised belts.

An insider told The Sun: “He crawled under a delivery van leaving groceries in the kitchen and tied himself up under the vehicle.

“After the food supplies were unloaded, the van returned through the main gate and was given a cursory inspection before being waved through. Then he disappeared into thin air.”

While the urgent inquiry was underway, Justice Minister Alex Chalk asked Governor Katie Price for an explanation.

Khalife has been charged over the bomb hoax incident at the RAF base and allegedly gathering information that would be “useful to a terrorist”.

Although he is not considered dangerous, the public is being warned not to approach the fugitive – who is slim, brown-haired and about 6ft 2in tall – but to call 911.

His disappearance was not immediately noticed.

But the prison was later closed in search of the lag, who wore a white top, red and white trousers and brown steel-toed boots.

An alert was issued in all ports amid fears that Khalifa, attached to the Royal Corps of Signals when he was charged in January, could be sneaking abroad.

And dozens of flights could be delayed as security forces across the country are put on high alert in search of the suspected terrorist.

Police said they were “carrying out extensive and urgent enquiries” to find the prisoner, who grew up in the nearby area with his mum and twin sister and has links to Kingston upon Thames.

Embarrassing security blunder has sparked outrage.

Former Met chief constable John O’Connor said: “This sounds like something that could have happened in Colditz, not a modern prison. This makes the prison service look like a laughing stock.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous that he was able to get away with such a basic old fashioned ruse so easily. Escaping by holding on to the bottom of a van is something you see in old WWII movies.”

Tory MP Paul Maynard, who sits on the justice committee, said: “While the focus now should be on finding this person, in the near future serious questions must be asked about how a person accused of offenses detrimental to national security could be allowed to to escape.”

Ian Acheson, former head of security at Wandsworth, added: “This is incredibly serious. An escape from custody, as this appears to be, would have to defeat multiple layers of physical/human security. We need to know what happened.”

The former soldier, who was stationed at Beacon Barracks headquarters, was charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act and acting against the “security and interests of the state”.

He allegedly collected information, notes and documents that could “be useful to the enemy”. He is also said to have taken details from a Ministry of Defense file “useful to a person who commits or prepares a terrorist act”.

Khalife is also charged with the bomb hoax, allegedly leaving “three wire canisters” on a table at RAF Stafford on January 2.

He was dismissed from the army in April, and his trial was supposed to begin on November 20.

The application for bail was rejected.

He was initially held in high-security Belmarsh in south-east London, before being moved to Wandsworth, a Category B Victorian prison.

He worked in C Wing, which houses vulnerable inmates such as sex offenders.

The prison service said: “We are working with the city’s police to recapture this prisoner and are urgently investigating how he escaped.”

Do you know more? Email Harry Goodwin: [email protected]

Ronnie is running

MAJOR train robber Ronnie Biggs escaped from Wandsworth in 1965 — climbing a wall using a rope ladder and escaping in a removals van.

Biggs disappeared 19 months into a 30-year sentence for his role in the 1963 mail train robbery and spent 36 years on the run.

Ronnie Biggs escaped from Wandsworth in 1965 — by climbing a wall using a rope ladder Credit: PA: Press Association

Major train robber escaped from prison in a moving van Credit: Syndication International

The Sun helped him return to Britain voluntarily from Brazil in 2001 and he was released in 2009.

Spy George Blake also used a rope ladder to escape from prison – escaping from Wormwood Scrubs in West London in 1966 and heading to the Soviet Union, where he died in 2020.

Khalife’s full list of transgressions

According to the Met Police, this is the full list of Khalife’s offences:

On 2 August 2021 at Beaconside, Stafford, Staffordshire, elicited or attempted to elicit information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, contrary to section 58A of the Terrorism Act 2000.
On or before 2 January 2023, at Beaconside, Stafford, Staffordshire, posted an article with intent to induce another to believe that the said article was likely to explode or catch fire and thereby cause personal injury or damage to property, contrary to section 51 of the Criminal Code from 1977

Khalife appeared at the Old Bailey on July 21, where the following offense was added to his indictment:

On the dates between May 1, 2019 and January 6, 2022, Daniel Khalife obtained, collected, recorded, published or transmitted to any other person, articles, notes, documents or information which were believed to be or might be or were were intended to be directly or indirectly useful to the enemy, contrary to section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911.