Daniel Khalife trial: CCTV images show ex-soldier in McDonald's after alleged prison escape

Jurors have been shown CCTV footage of the moment a former British soldier allegedly made his escape from Wandsworth prison underneath a food delivery lorry.

Daniel Khalife, 23, was being held on remand - accused of passing secrets to Iran - when he allegedly used a makeshift sling made of knotted bedsheets to cling on to the underside of the Bidfood truck while he was on kitchen duty.

Woolwich Crown Court saw footage of him leaving his cell on the morning of 6 September last year, wearing a blue T-shirt and dark trousers, before pulling a catering trolley.

The white Mercedes sprinter van is then seen outside the Category B prison in southwest London before driving away.

Khalife was discovered to be missing during a routine headcount, sparking a nationwide manhunt, the court has heard.

CCTV footage shown in court captured his movements while he was on the run, showing him walking past the White Cross pub in Richmond carrying a Waitrose bag on the day of his alleged escape.

Another clip shows Khalife inside a branch of Mountain Warehouse, where he looks straight at the camera before slipping a blue cap into his bag.

The following day he bought a Samsung mobile phone for £89 from the Gift Shop in Hammersmith, west London, and was seen in M&S in Kew Retail Park, where he bought jogging bottoms and two shirts for £35.60, the court heard.

He was also captured on CCTV in a branch of Sainsbury's, where he bought a £10 cash mobile phone top-up, the jury was told.

On 8 September he was seen looking at a story about his alleged escape in a newspaper, which he buys, while on 9 September, he bought a £1.09 espresso from McDonald's and changed his clothes in the toilets.

He was arrested on the footpath of the Grand Union Canal in Northolt later that morning, telling police: "My body aches. I f***ed myself up under the lorry" and "I don't know how immigrants do it."

Khalife was being held on remand over allegations he collected and shared sensitive information with Iranian intelligence agents while he was serving with the Royal Signals, based at Beacon Barracks, in Stafford, between May 2019 and January 2022.

The court heard a handwritten note found in his cell had banking details along with the name of his Iranian handler, "David Smith", and a phone number.

Two days after his alleged escape from prison, he messaged an account on the encrypted Telegram app, which is linked to Smith message, saying: "I wait," the court heard.

Read more from the trial:
Soldier who allegedly broke out of jail 'contacted Iranian agent over Facebook'
Khalife picked up £1,500 from Iranian handlers in dog poo bag

Didn't think it was a crime to leave prison

In a police interview after he was recaptured, Khalife said the arresting officers seemed "more panicky" than he was, and that he had made them laugh by joking about the prisoner governor sharing the same name as glamour model Katie Price.

Khalife said it was "ironic", that as a young man with a "baby face" he had been put on the vulnerable persons wing along with paedophiles, one of whom got him a job in the prison kitchen.

He described Wandsworth as "hell on earth" and said he was "very calm, very relaxed" when he was allegedly escaping under the van, adding: "I didn't realise how dangerous it was."

Khalife told police: "It was never my intention to be a free man forever," and said he stayed around west London, where he knew police were looking for him.

"I knew I was gonna get caught," he said, claiming everything went to plan apart from "how much of a burden I was to the country".

"I thought it would be a case where I'd be on the news, I didn't think little Susie trying to go to Ibiza is gonna get her fricking plane cancelled and shit like that," he said.

Khalife said he would be as well-known as notorious prisoner Charles Bronson when he was returned to prison.

"Now, I think about it I laugh, it sounds really weird but the thought never, ever crossed my mind that it was a crime to leave prison," he said.

"I thought it would just be like, oh they catch you and they just put you back in, that's it."

Khalife, from Kingston, southwest 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.

(c) Sky News 2024: Daniel Khalife trial: CCTV images show ex-soldier in McDonald's after alleged prison escape