HMP Wandsworth posted an unfortunate job ad a day before Daniel Khalife's escape

HMP Wandsworth, the London prison from which terror suspect Daniel Khalife escaped on Wednesday, posted a job vacancy for new prison officers a day before the 21-year-old snuck out of the facility – presumably strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery van leaving the premises.

The Metropolitan Police offered a reward of up to £20,000 for information which leads directly to Khalife’s arrest, with officers revealing on Friday that a member of the public claimed to have spotted the fugitive walking away from a food van near Wandsworth roundabout, in the direction of the town centre.

On Saturday morning, the Met said officers were focusing on the Chiswick area after some “confirmed sightings” overnight of Khalife, who was believed to be wearing a black baseball cap, black T-shirt and dark-coloured bottoms, and carrying “a small bag or case”.

Khalife was later apprehended and re-arrested in Chiswick just before 11am on Saturday, and is now back in police custody.

"We would like to thank the public and the media for their support throughout our investigation to locate Khalife and we will provide a further update on his arrest in due course," the Met said in a statement.

The escape of Khalife – who was awaiting trial for alleged offences related to terrorism and breaches of the Official Secrets Act – has put further pressure and attention on HMP Wandsworth, a site which the prison’s watchdog found was “very overcrowded” with increasing violence in a progress report published last year.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, has even said the prison “really needs closing”.

And to make things even more tense for Governor Katie Price and staff at the site, it’s emerged a job advert for a prison officer at both HMP Wandsworth and HMP Brixton went live on Tuesday – a day before Khalife went on the run.

“Prison officers protect the public and help offenders turn their lives around,” reads the first line of the posting on jobs site Indeed.

Meanwhile, the listing on the UK Government’s Civil Service Jobs website states there’s vacancies for up to 20 people to be recruited as prison officers, with a starting salary of more than £38,000.

If you are keen, you have until 11:55pm on 21 September to get your application in – though you may want to leave it a while…

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