On-the-run Daniel Khalife bought a copy of the Daily Mail to read the latest on the police search for him, a court has been told.
A nationwide hunt was launched in September last year after the British soldier escaped from HMP Wandsworth in south-west London while awaiting trial on allegations he was a spy for Iran.
Khalife, 23, had allegedly exploited his role in the prison kitchens to attach himself to the underside of a food lorry and held on until the oblivious driver left the estate.
Jurors at Woolwich Crown Court in south London were yesterday shown CCTV of his three days at large before he was arrested on a canal towpath in the capital by a plain clothes officer.
On-the-run prisoner Daniel Khalife picked up a copy of the Daily Mail to read the latest on the police search for him, CCTV shows
A nationwide manhunt was launched in September last year after British soldier Khalife escaped from HMP Wandsworth while awaiting trial on allegations he was a spy for Iran. He was later spotted on CCTV picking up a copy of the Daily Mail
Two days after his escape, footage revealed he visited a newsagents in Chiswick, west London, and was seen leafing through a copy of the Daily Mail, lingering on a page apparently showing coverage of the police search for him. Khalife was then filmed taking a copy of the paper to the counter and paying in cash.
Following his arrest, he insisted he never intended to cause such major disruption at airports and the Channel Tunnel as officers searched for him.
He told police: ‘I didn’t think little Susie trying to go to Ibiza is gonna get her fricking plane cancelled and s*** like that. When I saw the lorries getting stopped, I was like ‘oh, f***, the whole country’s getting p***** at me’.’
Khalife also claimed that he did not consider that it was wrong to escape from jail.
He insisted in one interview: ‘It sounds really weird but the thought never, ever crossed my mind that it was a crime to leave prison.
‘I never thought there was an offence for that, I thought it would just be like, they catch you and they just put you back in, that’s it. It was never my intention to be a free man and go on the run forever.’
Khalife can also be seen picking up a change of clothes at a branch of Marks and Spencer and Mountain Warehouse, with his wardrobe rotating regularly while he was on the loose
In another photograph, Khalife can be seen at a branch of McDonalds in Southall, London
In a second image from the McDonalds store, Khalife appears to be looking at a mobile phone
A photograph of a red T-shirt found with Khalife on the day that he was arrested by police
Khalife told officers that he gets more nervous buying a Mars bar than he did escaping from prison but he admitted he didn’t ‘realise how unbelievably dangerous it was’ to cling to the bottom of the lorry.
The court heard that, after escaping, Khalife bought a phone for £89 that he used to contact a number which police later linked to an Iranian spy.
A message recovered from the mobile is said to have revealed that he texted on the Telegram app his Iranian handler, who used the alias David Smith, saying: ‘I wait.’ He has denied passing sensitive intelligence to agents of Iran. A compilation of CCTV footage, which was played to the jurors, of his time on the run showed Khalife making his way across London on foot.
He was filmed next to a thick throng of passers-by on Richmond riverside, none of whom appear to twig that they had just seen Britain’s most-wanted fugitive.
He was able to pick up a change of clothes at branches of Marks & Spencer and Mountain Warehouse, with his wardrobe rotating regularly while he was on the loose.
Khalife is seen on CCTV preparing to slip out of custody while working in the kitchens at HMP Wandsworth – triggering a huge nationwide manhunt
He attached a ‘makeshift sling’ to the underside of a food delivery lorry and stowed himself there as the oblivious driver leaves the prison estate
Jurors were shown CCTV of the dramatic moment British soldier Daniel Khalife escaped from prison while clinging to the bottom of the lorry
This is an image of the sling attached by Khalife to the underside of the lorry by which he escaped from prison
Escaped prisoner Daniel Khalife (pictured) just moments after he was caught by police
Khalife (pictured) denies committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state, eliciting information about members of the armed forces, perpetrating a bomb hoax and escaping from lawful custody
Eventually he was intercepted by a plain clothes officer on the Grand Union Canal in Northolt on September 9 after he was spotted cycling.
Khalife allegedly complained to police in interviews that he had been put on the prison ‘paedophile wing’ for his own safety because a terrorist inmate was trying to kill British soldiers.
He stated that it was ‘ironic putting a 21-year-old lad on paedophile wing who’s got a bit of a baby face’.
Khalife is also said to have told police that he had become frustrated by living ‘in a cage and watching Antiques Roadshow’.
He denies committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state, eliciting information about members of the armed forces, perpetrating a bomb hoax and escaping from lawful custody.
The trial continues.
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