A 21-year-old Ghanaian, Daniel Boakye, who was awaiting deportation from the United Kingdom to Ghana, has escaped from police custody in London for the second time within a week.
Boakye fled on Sunday, February 15, while under guard at University Hospital Lewisham in south-east London, where he had been taken for medical treatment. According to UK authorities, he escaped shortly after 3:00 p.m. Despite a chase through the hospital corridors, officers were unable to recapture him. He remains at large.
The incident comes just days after a similar escape on Tuesday, February 10, at West Middlesex University Hospital in Isleworth, west London. On that occasion, Boakye managed to flee from prison officers but was arrested the following day at an address in Thamesmead, also in south-east London.
Following the first escape, British police arrested two women, aged 20 and 51, a 17-year-old girl, and a 30-year-old man on suspicion of assisting an offender.
They were later granted bail. Authorities say they are now reviewing the circumstances surrounding the second escape.
Boakye was sentenced in July 2023 to six years and five months’ imprisonment for his involvement in a gang linked to a string of knife-point robberies between June 2021 and January 2022. The group reportedly stole mobile phones and forced victims to disclose their passcodes before transferring about £115,000 in cryptocurrency from the devices.
Investigators were able to track down members of the gang after stolen bank details were used to order takeaway meals to their residential addresses.
The Metropolitan Police has launched a manhunt and is appealing to the public for information on Boakye’s whereabouts. UK authorities have reiterated that foreign nationals serving prison sentences are considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity.
Anyone with information has been urged to contact British police.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
