Ifedayo Adeyeye, who was imprisoned at HMP Pentonville for abducting his five-year-old son, was mistakenly released on 21 April, just one day after his sentencing. Prison staff failed to notify the police until three days later, allowing Adeyeye to move freely around London and potentially flee to Spain.
This serious error has caused public outrage regarding the failures in prison communication and the significant delays in police notification.
Adeyeye was sentenced on 20 April for contempt of court related to his son’s abduction but was wrongly freed the following day. The police were only informed on 24 April, a delay that Mr Justice Hayden described as an “alarming lack of urgency.” The judge strongly condemned how the authorities handled the case.
During the three-day period before police were alerted, Adeyeye reportedly wandered around London, dined in a pub, consumed alcohol, and transferred thousands of pounds. These actions raised concerns about his ability to evade custody while the police took action.
The Metropolitan Police revealed that Adeyeye may have left the United Kingdom for Spain on 22 April. Spanish officials were promptly notified about this possibility. The prison service attributed the mistake to a breakdown in court communication, but Mr Justice Hayden dismissed this explanation as “entirely groundless.”
The boy’s mother has been involved in UK courts since the 2024 abduction, seeking to regain custody of her son.
The High Court has issued an unprecedented ruling that could require Adeyeye to return the child from abroad. The judge described the abduction as “an act of cruelty rarely seen” and characterised Adeyeye as arrogant and manipulative. Originally, Adeyeye was jailed for failing to return his son from France to Nigeria via the UK.
The boy’s mother’s solicitor criticised the state’s failures concerning the mistaken release and the delayed police notification. Mr Justice Hayden emphasised that the public has the right to expect better management of sensitive and high-profile cases such as this.
Originally published by UKNIP.
