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A former prisoner has explained guards' reactions to hearing two criminals had accidentally been released earlier this week. Proinsias O'Doherty was released from HMP Wandsworth just before 3.30pm on Thursday. He said he had just served a two-week recall for missing a probation appointment having previously been jailed for four months for carrying a bladed article. The 28-year-old, from Clapham Junction, admitted he has been "a prolific offender" who has done eight years in jail, in eight different prisons. Asked what the reaction was inside the prison when inmates heard two prisoners had wrongly been let out , he said: "It was hilarious! Everybody was going 'let us out, let us out, let us out!' I was on the landing yesterday when we found out on the news. Everyone was going 'oi guv, I'm up for release!' and banging on the door and that! "It was a little joke we have because some of the people in here, they're doing life." Asked about the morale of prison staff inside the jail, he said: "They look a bit taken aback by everything that's happened! And the word is you boys are all out here as well, all the Press is outside." Asked why he thinks prisoners keep being wrongly let out, he said: "It's the NOMIS system, not the actual screws. The screws can only work to what the computers are like. Even releasing me now, trying to find me on the system to release me was so hard. I had to go and give all my details. "They have a finger print system. Now, this finger print system I don't think is any good for any prison because you know what technology's like... it breaks! What I think they should do is go back to old pen and paper. Everything on pen and paper and file it on pen and paper. You can't lose four copies of a bit of paper can you? "If they have digital, they should also have a paper back-up. This country has worked over pen and paper for how many years before computers?" Asked what advice he would give to Justice Secretary David Lammy about what needs to change, he joked: "Stop losing his paperwork!" Turning more serious for a moment, he added: "Instead of investing [money] into each prison individually, try and invest it in a whole and get a system that works for every prison, that any government person can come in and find a prisoner no matter where they are in England. Just tidy it up." Asked what it's like inside HMP Wandsworth, he said: "It's easy, good little jail, cushty. They treat you well, they treat you like a human, it's not one of the worst jails I've been to." He added: "They need to stop recalling us for the smallest things because the prison population is overflowing from recall prisoners." Meanwhile, a lag who was wrongly released from HMP Wandsworth handed himself in before enjoying a final cigarette outside with a laughing prison guard. William 'Billy' Smith walked into the public reception of the Victorian prison wearing a blue Nike tracksuit after being dropped off in a flat-bed truck at 10.30am. He was seen hugging a crying woman who was sitting inside the vehicle before telling a worker: "I'm the prisoner they're looking for. I'm about to hand myself in." Smith, 35, had been accidentally released from the same prison in South West London on Monday, just hours after being sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences. An onlooker, who witnessed his return to custody, said: “It looked like he was trying to savour his last moments of freedom before going back inside. There seemed to be some confusion at first about who he was and what he was there for. “He came in and out of the prison doors more than once while standing on the steps." They added: “A female guard gave him a lighter to spark up his cigarette and then after he came out again two male officers stood beside him while he smoked it. It was hard to tell, but it looked like he was having to argue his case to go back inside!" Another guard was later heard calling out to a colleague: "One of the prisoners who was wrongly released has just come back in!" Smith, of Woking, Surrey, became the subject of a high-profile manhunt on Wednesday when it was revealed both he and sex offender Brahim Kaddour Cherif had wrongly walked free from Wandsworth jail within days of each other. Smith walked out despite being sentenced to 45 months after he was confused with a co-defendant who has the same surname. Court listings showed a Joseph Smith also appeared in court, where it is understood he received a suspended sentence. William Smith appeared by video from Wandsworth, where he was being held on remand. But the sentences were mixed up, which triggered the release process. Officials tried to correct the error, but another mistake was made and the wrong person was notified. Algerian national Kaddour-Cherif, 24, who entered the UK legally in 2019 before overstaying his visa, last night remained on the run. He was serving a sentence for trespass with intent to steal when he was mistakenly freed last week. Shockingly, the Metropolitan Police were not told of the error for six days. He was in the initial stages of the deportation process when he disappeared on October 29. He had exposed himself to a woman in Walthamstow, East London, in March 2024, just days after he failed to appear in court on burglary charges. In November 2024, he was given an 18-month community order for indecent exposure and placed on the sex offenders’ register for five years. And then on September 9 this year, he was arrested again after officers confirmed he was wanted on warrant for failing to appear at court and breaching probation conditions. The fiend, who also goes by the name Ibrahim, is believed to have links to the East London borough of Tower Hamlets and is also known to frequent the Westminster area. Anyone who sees Cherif is asked not to approach him and to call 999 immediately. Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy was grilled about the double gaffe when he stood in for Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. He accused the Tories of “criminal negligence” of the justice system during their 14 years in power". And he said he was "absolutely outraged and appalled" by the mistaken release of a foreign criminal wanted by the police. The Mirror today alerted Ministry of Justice officials that Smith had handed himself in at HMP Wandsworth, which was put into special measures last year. It came as Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said prison chiefs were yesterday summoned to an urgent meeting and a team of digital experts had been tasked with overhauling the “archaic” paper-based system of prisoner records.
