A former British soldier has told a jury he did not hand himself in after he escaped from prison because he was “finally demonstrating what a foolish idea it was” to imprison someone with his “skill set”.
Daniel Khalife, 23, told the court he absconded from Wandsworth prison while on remand because he was “terrified” of being locked up with “serious sex offenders” and “terrorists” who wanted to kill him, and that he did not think his imprisonment would be in the public interest.
Giving evidence to Woolwich crown court on Friday, he said he made his escape because he wanted to be upgraded from a category B to a category A prisoner, so he would be kept in a high-security unit when he was moved to Belmarsh prison for his trial.
Khalife was being held on official secrets and terror charges, and is accused of passing secret information to “agents of Iran” and perpetrating a bomb hoax, as well as the prison escape.
He told jurors that two weeks before he made his getaway, he “acted suspiciously” and covered himself in soot from a food delivery lorry while working in the prison kitchen, to make a show of escaping.
He was “pretty shocked” when, despite being spotted by prison kitchen staff, the matter was not escalated and he faced no consequences.
Khalife then decided the only way to guarantee his safety was to “take the full measure” and actually escape, the court heard.
He attached a makeshift sling – made from kitchen trousers and carabiners (climbing-style clips) that inmates were given to keep their belongings safe from rats – to the underneath of the lorry on 1 September last year, to test whether it would be spotted on its delivery route to other prisons.
“I tested the security, not just in Wandsworth,” he said. “Strangely, over the coming days, I could see it but it wasn’t spotted in Wandsworth or any other prison.”
On the morning of 6 September he got into the sling, facing upwards. “When the tail lift raised it covered me entirely,” he said.
Although officers did “normal checks” with torches, they failed to find him, despite a governor coming into the tunnel and asking whether the vehicle had been searched, he told the court.
When the vehicle stopped outside the prison, he got out of the sling and lay on the ground underneath it in a “prone position” until it moved away.
He was arrested three days later on the footpath of the Grand Union canal, after his escape sparked a nationwide manhunt.
He told the court he knew that after he escaped he would be classified as a “double A” prisoner. “I accept that I left the prison and I didn’t have any permission,” Khalife said. “I accept that I shouldn’t have done what I did.”
But he said his escape had demonstrated “what a foolish idea it was to have someone of my skill set in prison. What use was it to anyone? … I was never a real spy.”
Khalife, from Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, denies a charge of committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state under the Official Secrets Act between 1 May 2019 and 6 January 2022.
He has also pleaded not guilty to a charge under the Terrorism Act of eliciting information about armed forces personnel on 2 August 2021, perpetrating a bomb hoax on or before 2 January 2023 and escaping from prison on 6 September last year.
The trial continues.
