A British-Nigerian man, Ifedayo Adeyeye, who was serving a prison sentence in the United Kingdom for abducting his son, has reportedly fled the country after being mistakenly released from custody.
According to reports by The Telegraph UK, the error occurred after officials at HMP Pentonville allegedly failed to notify police about Adeyeye’s accidental release, giving him a three-day head start before a manhunt was launched by the Metropolitan Police.
The development was revealed during a court hearing on Monday, May 12, 2026.
A judge had earlier ruled in June 2025 that Adeyeye abducted his son, Laurys Adeyeye, from his mother, Claire N’Djosse, in France and transported the child to Nigeria through the UK.
The court heard that Laurys, who was born in France and had lived with his mother since birth, spent the night of July 27, 2024, with his father for the first time before the alleged abduction occurred.
After failing to return the child as ordered by the court, Adeyeye was arrested upon his return to the UK and sentenced to six months imprisonment in January 2026 for contempt of court.
On April 20, 2026, he was handed an additional 12-month sentence after again failing to facilitate the child’s return to his mother. However, he was mistakenly released the following day after details of the new sentence were reportedly not communicated to the appropriate prison officials.
At an earlier hearing on May 1, 2026, the court criticised what it described as an “alarming lack of urgency” by prison authorities in responding to the incident.
The judge warned that the escape might have been prevented if law enforcement agencies had been alerted immediately.
“If the police had been contacted immediately, this could perhaps, almost certainly perhaps, have been prevented. The public is entitled to expect far better than this,” the judge said.
During Monday’s proceedings, the court was informed that Adeyeye was believed to have travelled to Spain shortly after his release and may have left the UK on April 22, 2026.
In a statement presented before the court, the Metropolitan Police said it was actively pursuing all available leads to locate and rearrest him.
“The Metropolitan Police recognises both the seriousness of this matter and how traumatic the present situation must be for both Ms N’Djosse and her son.
“We are using the powers at our disposal to pursue all reasonable lines of enquiry to locate and arrest Adeyeye and will continue to do so diligently and expeditiously,” the police said.
The Telegraph UK reported that the incident was part of a broader pattern of prison administrative failures in the UK, with data from the Ministry of Justice showing that 179 inmates were mistakenly released between April 2025 and March 2026.
The report also referenced a similar case involving Ola Abimbola, a Nigerian-born convict serving a 21-year sentence for kidnapping, who escaped from HMP Ford in October 2025 after reportedly walking out of the facility weeks after his transfer there.
