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Original poster

Escaped convict - Anyone else slightly fascinated by how he's escaping capture?

450 replies

Malariahilaria · 07/09/2023 12:45

I don't know why but this has captured my imagination. Daniel Khalife escaped prison by clinging to the underside of a delivery van. Now I'm wondering when did he let go? Where did he hide? Is it like the fugitive where he hides in a hen house out house and steals a doctor's uniform from a hospital? Where would you hide if you had to? Where do you get food and water and shelter?

OP posts:
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BIossomtoes · 07/09/2023 12:47

He’s got a support network facilitating it. Someone is hiding him and supplying him with everything he needs. I have no doubt they’ll get him out of the country too.

Judashascomeintosomemoney · 07/09/2023 12:47

No idea but I can’t get over the method of escape. Under a food van, dressed as a chef no less! Have we slippped back to the 1960s? It’s like an Ealing comedy plot. I’m only surprised he didn’t escape in a laundry hamper.

Being serious though, if he’s such a dangerous individual, why was he in such a low category prison?

OnAMidnightTrainToGeorgia · 07/09/2023 12:47

Well did he plan it and have someone waiting to help him?

Original poster
Malariahilaria · 07/09/2023 12:52

I would worry about speed humps if I was clinging to the underside of a van, easy to smack your head on. Maybe the van drivers were in on it and just got him a few hundred meters up the road? In these days though, with so little cash you couldn't even mug someone and nick a few quid for food could you?

OP posts:
fioritura · 07/09/2023 12:53

Judashascomeintosomemoney · 07/09/2023 12:47

No idea but I can’t get over the method of escape. Under a food van, dressed as a chef no less! Have we slippped back to the 1960s? It’s like an Ealing comedy plot. I’m only surprised he didn’t escape in a laundry hamper.

Being serious though, if he’s such a dangerous individual, why was he in such a low category prison?

Just going off what I saw on the news on the way to work this morning - I don't think he’s dangerous as such but knows classified information that they’d rather he didn’t know or share with anyone. Not sure if it’s because of a threat to national security or because it’s something awful.

AmbleInAnnBoleyn · 07/09/2023 12:55

I think he's ex armed forces so might have info useful to others?

Carriemac · 07/09/2023 12:58

I'm pissed off with him as I'm drunk to France tonight and the Eurotunnel queues are a nightmare because of this .

girlfriend44 · 07/09/2023 12:59

Another incompetence but never mind lessons will be learnt.

I expect he was strapped on and yes no doubt had help.

TripleDaisySummer · 07/09/2023 13:02

It’s like an Ealing comedy plot.

l thought exactly this.

Though apparent there have been serious concerns about staffing levels for a while at that prison.

verdantverdure · 07/09/2023 13:05

To be honest everything is so understaffed and broken in this country I'll be fascinated if they catch him.

If I was in prison right now I'd be looking up which of its buildings were built with RAAC over 30 years ago and giving them an exploratory kicking.

BarbaraofSeville · 07/09/2023 13:10

If he's spying for Iran, as is alleged, then he'll have a substantial support network to hide him in the UK or get him out of the UK. As an ex soldier, he'll also be able to look after himself without being caught.

News now saying it's likely he has left the country, but I suppose they'll want to do extra checks on the ports and airports just in case.

Obviously the decision to keep him in a cat B rather than a cat A would have made it less difficult to escape (cat B security isn't particularly low but vehicles leaving cat As are searched underneath with a big mirror) and will be questioned.

But until someone says why, who knows? It could be based on risk assessment or lack of resources. Like most of the public sector, the Prison Service has been hugely underfunded by the current government. But having said that, recent escapes have been very very low, literally no more than one or two a year for the last decade or so and the majority of these are likely to be while out at court or in hospital, which is a very common means of escape.

BIossomtoes · 07/09/2023 13:10

I don’t think they’ll catch him. If they can’t stop small boats coming in, they won’t be able to stop them leaving either. I bet he’s already left the country.

OnAMidnightTrainToGeorgia · 07/09/2023 13:12

Er, cat B prisons have the mirror too.

givemushypeasachance · 07/09/2023 13:23

I was discussing this earlier in a hypothetical way - it's a bit like those Hunted programmes and such. If you had just escaped from prison and were wearing a chef's outfit, and were just say a couple of miles from the prison at the next stop maybe a factory or something, you get out from under the van and then what do you do.

It's about 8am on a weekday. You've got no phone, no money, no ID or credit cards or anything. You're in not an obvious prison uniform, but slightly unusual clothes to be wandering the streets in. What do you do first - get a change of clothes? Where from. Maybe you can steal from a clothes line in a back garden, or a bag left outside a charity shop or clothes donation bin, if you pass one. You could try to shoplift from a charity shop or supermarket or something but the latter puts you on CCTV and at risk of being stopped by security.

You probably need transport - maybe you want to get to family/friends who can help you, maybe you just want to get far away from the prison. Can you just get on a bus or the tube without paying without people noticing? You can't phone a friend for a lift unless you borrow someone else's phone or get a way to pay for a public phone and know the number you're calling. You could try hitchhiking, but people are going to remember seeing someone hitchhiking in a chef's outfit so you'd better have changed clothes!

Without my phone I'd be pretty stuffed even just trying to navigate if it wasn't a bit of my hometown I'm familiar with. Maybe I'd try to steal someone's phone, but biometrics and passcodes mean it probably wouldn't work... I think I'll just stay in prison tbh.

AutumnCrow · 07/09/2023 13:32

It's all very well Alex Chalk and Michelle Donelen ranting on about shoulda-been-Cat-A prisoners being held in Cat B prisons, but there's a shortage of prison places and prison staff owing to government underfunding that they've known about for years.

This government really has some chickens coming home to roost now.

JockTamsonsBairns · 07/09/2023 13:34

givemushypeasachance · 07/09/2023 13:23

I was discussing this earlier in a hypothetical way - it's a bit like those Hunted programmes and such. If you had just escaped from prison and were wearing a chef's outfit, and were just say a couple of miles from the prison at the next stop maybe a factory or something, you get out from under the van and then what do you do.

It's about 8am on a weekday. You've got no phone, no money, no ID or credit cards or anything. You're in not an obvious prison uniform, but slightly unusual clothes to be wandering the streets in. What do you do first - get a change of clothes? Where from. Maybe you can steal from a clothes line in a back garden, or a bag left outside a charity shop or clothes donation bin, if you pass one. You could try to shoplift from a charity shop or supermarket or something but the latter puts you on CCTV and at risk of being stopped by security.

You probably need transport - maybe you want to get to family/friends who can help you, maybe you just want to get far away from the prison. Can you just get on a bus or the tube without paying without people noticing? You can't phone a friend for a lift unless you borrow someone else's phone or get a way to pay for a public phone and know the number you're calling. You could try hitchhiking, but people are going to remember seeing someone hitchhiking in a chef's outfit so you'd better have changed clothes!

Without my phone I'd be pretty stuffed even just trying to navigate if it wasn't a bit of my hometown I'm familiar with. Maybe I'd try to steal someone's phone, but biometrics and passcodes mean it probably wouldn't work... I think I'll just stay in prison tbh.

What a brilliant post! 😂

Bemyclementine · 07/09/2023 13:37

Reminds me of the porridge episode with the football match..

OnAMidnightTrainToGeorgia · 07/09/2023 13:40

He's on remand. Cat A prisons aren't remand prisons afaik

BorrowedThyme · 07/09/2023 13:45

It is depressing rather than fascinating. A suspected terrorist, I guess he just went straight back to his group. I expect they were waiting to pick him up

BarbaraofSeville · 07/09/2023 13:47

OnAMidnightTrainToGeorgia · 07/09/2023 13:40

He's on remand. Cat A prisons aren't remand prisons afaik

But if he's a high risk prisoner where the consequences of escape are very serious (as in risk to national security, not that he's necessarily going to go round attacking people), they must be able to hold them securely while waiting for trial as this can take months, if not years.

So either it's made exceptionally hard for them to escape, or more would be escaping than normally do.

Spidey66 · 07/09/2023 13:49

He was working in the kitchens so would have been wearing appropriate clothing. Though AFAIK remand prisoners aren't obliged to work, though they can if they want.

I think the delivery driver must have been in on it.

OnAMidnightTrainToGeorgia · 07/09/2023 13:50

Where does it say straps were on the vehicle?

MidnightOnceMore · 07/09/2023 13:52

TripleDaisySummer · 07/09/2023 13:02

It’s like an Ealing comedy plot.

l thought exactly this.

Though apparent there have been serious concerns about staffing levels for a while at that prison.

Serious concerns at EVERY prison.

Yet another thing completely broken.

MidnightOnceMore · 07/09/2023 13:53

OnAMidnightTrainToGeorgia · 07/09/2023 13:50

Where does it say straps were on the vehicle?

This was just on the news.

Papillon23 · 07/09/2023 13:53

givemushypeasachance · 07/09/2023 13:23

I was discussing this earlier in a hypothetical way - it's a bit like those Hunted programmes and such. If you had just escaped from prison and were wearing a chef's outfit, and were just say a couple of miles from the prison at the next stop maybe a factory or something, you get out from under the van and then what do you do.

It's about 8am on a weekday. You've got no phone, no money, no ID or credit cards or anything. You're in not an obvious prison uniform, but slightly unusual clothes to be wandering the streets in. What do you do first - get a change of clothes? Where from. Maybe you can steal from a clothes line in a back garden, or a bag left outside a charity shop or clothes donation bin, if you pass one. You could try to shoplift from a charity shop or supermarket or something but the latter puts you on CCTV and at risk of being stopped by security.

You probably need transport - maybe you want to get to family/friends who can help you, maybe you just want to get far away from the prison. Can you just get on a bus or the tube without paying without people noticing? You can't phone a friend for a lift unless you borrow someone else's phone or get a way to pay for a public phone and know the number you're calling. You could try hitchhiking, but people are going to remember seeing someone hitchhiking in a chef's outfit so you'd better have changed clothes!

Without my phone I'd be pretty stuffed even just trying to navigate if it wasn't a bit of my hometown I'm familiar with. Maybe I'd try to steal someone's phone, but biometrics and passcodes mean it probably wouldn't work... I think I'll just stay in prison tbh.

I guess if you're an agent of a foreign state, you may have a safe house to make your way to, or it may have been specifically planned and someone knows where you'll be and where to meet you.