Former soldier Daniel Khalife talks about breaking out of prison to prove his skills | British news

A former soldier has told a jury his escape from Wandsworth prison showed it was ‘a foolish idea’ to detain someone with his ‘skills’ on charges of spying for Iran.

Daniel Khalife23, said he had taken “full measure” to leave the category B prison after an earlier attempt to “make a show” of his escape failed to result in him being moved to a high-security unit.

He said he hatched a plan because he was receiving unwanted attention from the sex offenders on the vulnerable prisoners wing and could not be in the main prison because terrorists wanted to kill him as a British soldier.

Khalife told the jury for the first time about the escape during his trial at Woolwich Crown Court, telling how he made a makeshift sling from kitchen trousers and carabiners used by prisoners to protect their belongings from rats.

He attached it to a food delivery truck on September 1 last year to see if it would be spotted by officers at Wandsworth or other prisons on the delivery route.

“I put the two carabiners and the makeshift rope under the truck,” he said.

“Once I made the decision to actually leave the prison, I wanted to do it the right way, so I didn’t just test security in Wandsworth.”

“Strangely I could see it over the next few days but it was not seen in Wandsworth or any other prison,” he said.

Then, on the morning of September 6, Khalife said he hid under the truck and rested his back on the sling while the truck was searched.

“They did normal checks around the truck, but they didn’t find me. After that, a governor came to the tunnel and said, ‘Have you searched the vehicle?’

“I looked up. There was action around the truck.”

Khalife said that when the vehicle stopped, he “came out from under the truck and remained in a prone position” until the truck took off.

He was arrested three days later on the footpath of the Grand Union Canal in Northolt, west London, after a nationwide manhunt.

When asked why he had not turned himself in after his escape, Khalife said: “I finally showed what a foolish idea it was to have someone with my skills in prison. What good was that to anyone.”

Khalife, from Kingston, south-west London, denies committing an act prejudicial to the security or interests of the state under the Official Secrets Act between May 1, 2019 and January 6, 2022.

He has also pleaded not guilty to a charge under the Terrorism Act of obtaining information about armed forces personnel on August 2, 2021, carrying out a bomb attack on or before January 2, 2023 and escaping from prison on September 6 last year.