Former soldier Daniel Khalife has pleaded guilty to escaping from HMP Wandsworth, in a dramatic change of plea mid-way through his trial.
The 23-year-old clung to the underside of a food delivery truck using a sling made from kitchen trousers for the prison break in September 2023.
He has told jurors he wanted to get away from sex offenders and terrorists in prison, and believed a prison break was his best option to be moved to a “safer” unit in HMP Belmarsh.
Khalife denied the prison escape charge before his trial began, but on Monday Mrs Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said Khalife had asked for the allegation to be put to him again.
“I’m guilty”, the former soldier replied.
Khalife remains on trial over allegations under the Official Secrets Act and Terrorism Act, as well as a claim he perpetrating a bomb hoax.
He continues to deny those charges.
The trial has heard Khalife was being held in Wandsworth when he planned a fake escape attempt for August 21 last year.
He says he “acted suspiciously” around a food delivery truck, and claims the stunt was intended to be discovered so that he would be moved to the high-security unit in Belmarsh.
But Khalife said he was “shocked” when kitchen staff saw him but did not report the incident to senior prison staff.
He then resolved a real jail break was the only viable option.
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.
“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.
Giving evidence Khalife said he was taken to HMP Wandsworth in January 2023 and was told he would be kept on a wing for vulnerable prisoners because there were “terrorist offenders” at the prison who “want to kill you”.
“It was not a nice place to be”, he said of the wing, and said as a former soldier he was “terrified” of being kept in a similar situation at HMP Belmarsh if he was moved to the maximum security jail.
“I knew what Belmarsh was,” he said, adding: “I knew what type of clientele it had”.
The other charges against Khalife relate to his time in the Army, when he is accused of gathering information for the Iranian intelligence services.
Jurors have heard he took a photo of a handwritten list of 15 soldiers, including some serving in the Special Air Service and Special Boat Service.
In August 2020 he travelled to Istanbul in Turkey where he was told to get a flight to Iran. But Khalife says he deliberately sabotaged the onward journey.
He has told the court he had come up with a double agent plot, inspired by TV’s Homeland, in which he planned to fake a defection in order to “draw out” the Iranians.
He fled from his Army barracks in January 2023, and says he was scared at the time that he would be targeted by Iran for failing to follow through on the planned defection.
He left behind a device in his room, with a note saying: “You can say with certainty that you will go to prison for a very long time. Your options are suicide or absconding.”
The note went on: “Once in Iran you can manage life again and travel to interesting places freely.”
Khalife says he never intended the device to be mistaken for a real bomb, and he was instead hoping to trigger a police manhunt that would convince the Iranians of his loyalty.
“I wanted to continue to help our country,” he said.
The trial continues.
