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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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16
ginderella85 · 08/09/2023 15:04

Silverdogblue · 07/09/2023 15:45

No. It’s really not easy. Prisoners get scanned in a metal detecting chair which can identify anything they may have secreted. There is very minimal touching allowed between prisoners and visitors, and both are searched. Visitors before visits and prisoners afterwards. That and random searching of both prisoners and cells. It’s really not easy to get a mobile phone or cash into a prison.

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As someone that's worked in YOIs I can tell you they get whatever they want in there for the right price unfortunately

Nutterjacks · 08/09/2023 16:08

MrMucker · 07/09/2023 14:42

That hanging under the vehicle and up to no good, Robert De Niro did it in Cape Fear too.

That was my first thought - good film.

No doubt they'll make a film of this case too.

An ex inmate was on tv last night saying that this was planned. Daniel Khalife told him that one day he'd be famous.

Paul2023 · 08/09/2023 22:25

OnAMidnightTrainToGeorgia · 07/09/2023 13:40

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

That’s not quite true. Cat A prisons also hold petty criminals and those on remand. You can still be a high risk prisoner on remand, trials can take months.
Someone isn’t a convicted prisoner until they’ve been found guilty. Crimes to do with terrorism generally go on for months.

Belmarsh is a Cat A prison and takes any prisoners, including shop lifters and thieves. Most of them are not Cat A prisoners.

Paul2023 · 08/09/2023 22:27

The question is why was he only in a Cat B jail and why was he given a job in a kitchen with access to tools?

I think some heads will roll. There’s will
be a blame game that’s for sure.

coxesorangepippin · 08/09/2023 22:27

They are never gonna catch that boy

I think a lot of people are actually cheering him on

Paul2023 · 08/09/2023 22:29

Dontcallmescarface · 07/09/2023 16:48

Aren't armed forces personnel trained to escape if they are ever captured or is it just some branches of the military? Genuine question.

Edited

I’ve served in the Army and the answer is
no! In any case no one in the army is taught how to escape from a prison!

SquirmOfEels · 08/09/2023 22:56

I am really tickled that the first of the Similar Threads suggested at the foot of this one is "Secret Escapes - experiences good and bad please"

JaneJeffer · 08/09/2023 23:01

SquirmOfEels · 08/09/2023 22:56

I am really tickled that the first of the Similar Threads suggested at the foot of this one is "Secret Escapes - experiences good and bad please"

Grin
OnAMidnightTrainToGeorgia · 08/09/2023 23:03

@Paul2023 yes I know that. But Belmarsh isn't exclusively a remand prison

Hawkins0009 · 09/09/2023 00:35

Paul2023 · 08/09/2023 22:29

I’ve served in the Army and the answer is
no! In any case no one in the army is taught how to escape from a prison!

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as far as im aware some still do sere training or the equivalent

KatherineJaneway · 09/09/2023 01:33

If he strapped himself to the underside of a vehicle to escape, he likely had help from the inside and could then flag to a network outside to be ready to help him. Quite easy to hide in London unobserved.

Hawkins0009 · 09/09/2023 01:40

KatherineJaneway · 09/09/2023 01:33

If he strapped himself to the underside of a vehicle to escape, he likely had help from the inside and could then flag to a network outside to be ready to help him. Quite easy to hide in London unobserved.

apologies, but theres coffee in that nebula

NoSaladThanks · 09/09/2023 01:58

I doubt they will find him for a long time, if ever.
If they do, it will probably be abroad.
He may have connections that give him a new identity or surgery to help, it's not unheard of.
However, it will be interesting to find out what happened if he ever is recaptured.

KatyKopykat · 09/09/2023 02:14

Malariahilaria · 07/09/2023 15:29

How much do you think you'd need to bribe them for it to be worth the risk of ending up an inmate where you've been a guard?

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They wouldn't be an inmate at a prison where they'd worked as an officer.

ferntwist · 09/09/2023 03:59

I’m fascinated too! Can’t stop reading the news updates. It will be so interesting to find out how he evaded capture for so long and if the Iranians are involved

GarlicGrace · 09/09/2023 04:13

Hawkins0009 · 09/09/2023 00:37

Pointlessly amused by this, as the obvious acronym would be DESERT.

Also, placemarking as am pointlessly fascinated by this story. I used to live next to Wandsworth prison (Alma Terrace, for locals) and inmates were always escaping. Now and again they'd run over our rooves. We heard hair-raising and sometimes disturbing stories in the pub, from the staff coming off shift.

That was a very long time ago but I keep loosely up to date, and things have very definitely not got better at HMP. That's from a low starting point. I don't know how they - staff or inmates - cope as well as they do. The place has a reputation for relatively 'good' atmosphere, which is something of an achievement by the people running it.

Anyway, I'm unsurprised by the success of this escape and somewhat charmed by the 1960s-movie-style method! No idea what Khalife has actually done ... but, yeah, Richmond Park would make a decent hiding place if he hasn't been supported by an organised scheme. Only very short term, though: he'll need some nearby friends to take him in & smuggle him away.

Rory Stewart was mentioned upthread. What a loss to British politics.

Palmasailor · 09/09/2023 05:01

coxesorangepippin · 08/09/2023 22:27

They are never gonna catch that boy

I think a lot of people are actually cheering him on

I don’t think so either. He’s a bright kid, and I don’t believe the bollocks they’re spouting, I think he probably discovered something more to do with them than him and they’re petrified it will get out.

EyesEars · 09/09/2023 05:15

ShirleyPhallus · 07/09/2023 13:57

London is huge and it’s so easy to be anonymous, he doesn’t have distinct features at all that it would be so easy to walk past him in the street and not realise

i suspect he’s been hidden in plain sight until he could make contact with his contacts and then scarpered

I thought he was quite distinctive. I felt sorry foe the poor bloke arrested at the train station who looked vaguely like him.

NoSaladThanks · 09/09/2023 05:16

The theme tune from the great escape film keeps popping into my head every time I hear about him.

MaybeanothertimeNotReally · 09/09/2023 05:24

He has a distinctive look but it's mainly his hair but once that's shaved off & he's grown a beard, he'll be unrecognisable. He's probably already left the country by now.

sashh · 09/09/2023 05:24

@givemushypeasachance there's an old(ish) TV series called 'extremely dangerous'.

It starts with Sean Bean's character escaping a train while being transferred between prisons and... well the answers to your questions are the first episode.

Also we don't know that he doesn't have a phone, and he may have a prison ID that could be altered.

As a child I read about some of the POW escapes and things they made or were supplied with eg you can magnetise a needle or a razor blade to make a compass, you can also use an analogue watch as a compass if you can see the sun.

Jackienory · 09/09/2023 05:40

It wasn’t a van, it was a lorry and they have chassis rails to cling to. I also feel it was planned and he has help. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.