British soldier Daniel Khalife has been convicted of escaping prison after changing his plea to guilty halfway through giving evidence at his trial.
The 23-year-old triggered a huge nationwide manhunt last year after slipping out of HMP Wandsworth in south London while clinging to the bottom of a food truck.
He previously denied the charge of escaping from lawful custody, along with allegations including spying for Iran, for which he is currently standing trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
But today, the court clerk put the prison escape charge to Khalife again and he replied: ‘I’m guilty.’
He continues to deny the other charges against him.
British soldier Daniel Khalife (pictured) has been convicted of escaping prison after changing his plea to guilty halfway through giving evidence at his trial
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb explained to jurors that Khalife was being asked to enter his plea again because ‘he was in lawful custody’ and, in his evidence, ‘he has admitted escape’ and there is ‘no defence in law’ that he had presented.
His trial will continue with Khalife due today to face cross-examination from prosecutor Mark Heywood KC on the spying charges.
The change of plea came after the former soldier spent several hours in the witness box describing how he had escaped the prison estate, despite formally denying the charge.
Today is the first day the trial has been sitting since Khalife gave detailed evidence about his escape.
He previously told jurors how, by exploiting his role in the prison kitchens, he used a sling made from kitchen trousers to attach himself to the underside of a lorry and was driven to freedom.
For three days in September last year, he remained at large before being arrested while cycling on a canal towpath by a plain-clothed police officer.
Khalife insisted he only escaped to ensure he was moved into a high-security unit away from sex offenders and terrorists when he was transferred to a more dangerous prison.
He claimed that, a few weeks earlier, he tried to ‘make a show of escaping’ by lingering suspiciously near the food lorry, but, although spotted and reprimanded, it was not sufficient for him to be reclassified as a very high-risk prisoner.
‘I was disappointed with myself for taking a half measure, so I took a full measure,’ he said.
Khalife told the jury he used kitchen trousers to fashion a sling which he attached to the bottom of the food lorry on September 1 last year and waited several days to see whether security spotted it.
When he realised no one had noticed, he rolled underneath the lorry on the morning of September 6 and clung on until the driver obliviously spirited him away.
‘I left and I knew at that moment I would be classified as high risk and I would be put in a high-security unit,’ he said.
‘And I haven’t had to worry about coming into harm’s way for the past year as a result of what I did.
‘I had no intention to leave this jurisdiction or run away from these charges.’
Asked why he did not just hand himself in immediately, he said: ‘I felt during the escape that I was finally demonstrating what a foolish idea it was to have somebody of my skill set in prison. What use was it to anyone?’
Khalife is accused of betraying his country by exploiting his position in the Army to pass secrets to Iran – and was awaiting trial on these charges when he escaped.
But he insists he was actually acting as an amateur ‘double agent’ to prove himself to MI5 and MI6, after being told his Iranian heritage would stop him getting his dream job in intelligence.
He previously told jurors: ‘I was never a real spy. I only wanted to mislead and send fake, useless information to build a rapport with this enemy based on deception.’
Police arrested him just weeks after he contacted MI5 to tell them about his alleged covert operation against the Iranians.
Khalife continues to deny committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state, eliciting information about members of the armed forces and perpetrating a bomb hoax. The trial continues.
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