CCTV footage from a convenience store in London has apparently captured a former soldier reading newspaper articles about his own escape from prison while actively on the lam.
23-year-old Daniel Khalife, accused of breaching the Official Secrets Act by collecting confidential information for Iran, briefly escaped from prison on Sept. 6 2023 while working in the kitchens at HMP Wandsworth.
According to the prosecution, Khalife hid underneath a food truck which was then allowed to leave Wandsworth prison in south-west London, BBC reported.
Khalife, who was once again arrested on Sept. 9 and remanded into lawful custody, was tracked by law enforcement using CCTV footage from various locations in London during the three days he spent as a fugitive.
He was seen going on what some have referred to as a "shopping spree" around the city of London as an escaped prisoner, with footage depicting him buying shirts and some jogging bottoms in a Marks & Spencer store, topping up his phone at a Sainsbury's and even buying a new Samsung phone from a shop on King street.
On Sept. 8, the former soldier was captured buying a copy of the Daily Mail after looking through some print editions of newspapers at a newsagent, including an edition of the Daily Mirror. Both of these papers displayed articles about Khalife's alleged escape as he read them.
While out of prison, Khalife reportedly looked up "Can a phone be tracked from IMEI?". He also sent a message to an account linked to Iranian intelligence using Telegram Messenger.
"I wait," the message read.
He was arrested the next morning on a canal towpath in Northolt.
Upon being re-captured, Khalife justified his escape attempt to the officer interviewing him by stating that he was trained to do so in the army.
"You're trained to live in the woods, you're trained to kill people," he said. "You put a soldier in a cage, he only thinks about how can I get out of the cage."
