A 21-year-old prisoner scheduled for deportation to Ghana has escaped from UK police custody for the second time in a week, prompting a renewed manhunt.
Daniel Boakye fled officers on Sunday while receiving treatment under guard at University Hospital Lewisham in south-east London. Police said he ran off shortly after 3pm and evaded capture despite a pursuit through the hospital corridors. He remains at large.
The incident comes just five days after Boakye escaped from prison officers at West Middlesex University Hospital in Isleworth. He was rearrested the following day in Thamesmead, south-east London, where four people were detained on suspicion of assisting an offender and later released on bail.
Boakye is serving a six-year, five-month sentence imposed in July 2023 for his role in a gang involved in a series of knifepoint robberies between June 2021 and January 2022. The group stole mobile phones and used victims’ passcodes to access bank details and siphon £115,000 in cryptocurrency.
The Metropolitan Police said it is reviewing the circumstances surrounding the latest escape and has urged anyone with information on Boakye’s whereabouts to come forward. The Home Office reiterated that foreign national offenders sentenced in the UK are referred for deportation at the earliest opportunity.