Prisoner found guilty of helping Daniel Khalife evade manhunt after jail break

A prisoner has been found guilty of supplying money to a soldier while on the run after escaping from prison.

Daniel Khalife, a serving soldier in the British Army, was being held on remand awaiting trial on charges of spying for Iran and perpetrating a bomb hoax at his base when he escaped from Wandsworth prison on 6 September 2023.

He then made a series of "desperate" calls to Adeel Khan, 32, who had an illicit phone inside the jail in south west London.

The pair met while working in the prison kitchens and Khalife wrote his details in a diary which he carried with him when he made his escape by holding onto the bottom of a lorry.

Khalife borrowed phones from members of the public in order to contact Khan after his escape.

Khan then messaged his girlfriend, who transferred £120 to Imran Chowdhury, 26, a web developer for The Daily Telegraph, as payment for him to travel to Richmond, south west London, and meet Khalife, a court heard.

Chowdhury then met Khalife, where he withdrew £400 using his Amex card at 10.39pm, jurors at Snaresbrook Crown Court were told.

Khan and Chowdhury denied intending to "prevent, hinder or interfere" with Khalife being taken into custody. Khan pleaded guilty to possessing a mobile phone inside a prison without authority.

A jury on Tuesday found Khan guilty, but cleared Chowdhury. They deliberated for four hours and 36 minutes before convicting Khan by a majority of 11 to one.

The morning after his escape, Khalife went into Marks and Spencer at the Kew Retail Park and spent £35.60 on T-shirts, jogging bottoms and socks and then went to Kings Mall Shopping Centre in Hammersmith to buy a phone.

That evening, he tried contact Khan a further five times before a call was answered at 7.30pm and the pair spoke for 17 minutes and 35 seconds.

On the morning of 8 September, Khalife was seen on CCTV buying a 3G mobile phone voucher and a copy of The Daily Mail with a story about his escape in a newsagent in Chiswick.

Beginning at 5.24pm, Khalife made 12 further attempts over three hours to contact Khan on his iPhone in prison, leaving several voicemails which were not recovered.

Early the next morning, he stole a bike and tried to escape up the Grand Union canal towpath, but he was spotted by a member of the public and intercepted by undercover officers in Northolt.

He was found to be carrying £200 in cash and the diary in which he had written the prison number, mobile phone number and Snapchat handle for Khan.

Khalife, 24, was sentenced to 14 years and three months in prison in February last year.

Khalife and Khan had shared 190 shifts in the prison kitchen, but Khan claimed he had never spoken to Khalife and only knew him from queuing to be taken to their additional gym sessions, a perk of the job.

Chowdhury's defence barrister, James Hasslacher, told jurors the defendant had not known he was dealing with an escaped prisoner, describing Khalife as a spy who "knows how to deceive".

He said Chowdhury was of "good character", with no previous convictions and a job earning a good salary at The Telegraph newspaper.

Judge Murray Shanks said the jury's findings suggested Chowdhury "didn't know what the hell was going on", adding it seemed a "reasonable verdict, I have to admit".

Khan was remanded into custody to be sentenced at the same court on September 4.

(c) Sky News 2026: Prisoner found guilty of helping Daniel Khalife evade manhunt after jail break