Manhunt for prisoner who 'absconded' after being freed from HMP Wandsworth for brother's wedding

A Palestine Action protester who was temporarily freed from jail to go to his brother's wedding has failed to return to Wandsworth prison, Sky News understands.

Police are searching for Sean Middlebrough, 32, who was being held on remand at HMP Wandsworth. It's understood he was granted bail by a judge to attend his brother's wedding, but hasn't returned.

Middlebrough was charged over an alleged plot by activists to disrupt the London Stock Exchange by chaining themselves to the building. Palestine Action was formally proscribed as a terrorist organisation earlier this year.

A government spokesperson said "court decisions are made by judges - independently of government". "Absconding is a serious criminal offence, and any defendant who commits this crime could face longer behind bars," they added.

This failure to return to HMP Wandsworth in south London marks the latest in a string of embarrassing episodes for the justice system, after three high-profile mistaken prison releases in the past two weeks. The number of these types of errors has risen recently, with 262 instances between March 2024 and March 2025 - a 128% increase on 115 in the previous 12 months.

Read more: How many prisoners are released by mistake? ???? Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app ???? Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told Sky News the government is "gripping" the prisons crisis, adding it is "unacceptable" that the number of prisoners being wrongly released has risen. She told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that Justice Secretary David Lammy has made a senior appointment "to make sure we really grip this".

Read more from Sky News:Labour exploring Danish migration modelKing leads Remembrance Sunday service Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a 24-year-old Algerian sex offender, was released in error from HMP Wandsworth on 29 October - just five days after the high-profile release of migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford in Essex. Kaddour-Cherif came to the UK legally and is not an asylum seeker, but it is understood he overstayed his visit visa and deportation proceedings had been started.

Sky News filmed the moment Kaddour-Cherif was detained on Friday 7 November. Kebatu came to the UK illegally before sexually assaulting a child, for which he was jailed.

He has since been recaptured and deported. A third man, fraudster William Smith, 35, was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth on 3 November, but turned himself in on Thursday 6 November..