The Cafe Tip-Off That Started It All
It began with a simple espresso in a modest north London cafe, where Sky News National Correspondent Tom Parmenter found himself following a lead on one of Britain's most wanted men. Inside the side-street establishment, several Algerian men were gathered, with others smoking on the pavement outside. Parmenter had received information that Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a 24-year-old convicted sex offender who had been mistakenly released from prison, might be in the Finsbury Park area.
After ordering his coffee, the journalist began asking questions. The response was immediate and surprisingly candid. Several of the men acknowledged knowing Kaddour-Cherif, with one customer revealing he had actually seen the fugitive the previous evening. "He wants to hand himself to police," one friend told Parmenter frankly. This conversation marked the beginning of the end for a high-profile manhunt that had gripped the capital.
The Dramatic Park Chase
Within an hour of the cafe encounter, the man who had provided information led Parmenter and camera operator Josh Masters to a nearby location. The date was Saturday 8 November 2025, and the search for Kaddour-Cherif had been ongoing since his mistaken release from HMP Wandsworth on 29 October.
The guide instructed them to follow at a distance as he led the way through Finsbury Park, past joggers, families and tennis players. The location was strangely familiar to the Sky News team - just weeks earlier, they had been in the same park covering the arrest of Hadush Kebatu, another sex offender who had been wrongly released from prison.
Suddenly, the situation escalated dramatically. Two police officers ran past them - the Metropolitan Police had received their own tip-off from a member of the public. The scene quickly became chaotic with undercover officers, uniformed police, screeching tyres and blaring sirens filling the area.
The Confrontation and Arrest
As police scoured the streets, Parmenter and Masters noticed a man matching the suspect's description wearing green tracksuit bottoms, a beanie hat and glasses. "It's him, it's him," multiple sources confirmed to the journalists.
The suspect attempted to walk away while police continued searching nearby streets. Parmenter and Masters caught up with him and directly asked: "Are you Brahim?" The man responded with denial and evasion, falsely claiming the actual suspect had pedalled away on a Lime bicycle.
Despite his attempts to maintain the deception, Kaddour-Cherif eventually walked up to a nearby police van. Officers quickly moved to handcuff him and explain why he was being arrested. Over the next ten minutes, the prisoner became increasingly agitated.
"It's not my f****** fault, they release me!" he yelled at Parmenter as officers used a smartphone to verify his identity against Sky News' online images of the wanted man.
Once confirmation was complete, the prisoner cage in the back of the police van was opened and Kaddour-Cherif was guided inside, ending the farcical situation that had seen two sex offenders wrongly released from the same prison within days of each other.
Following the arrest, Parmenter spoke to another Algerian man who had tipped off police. The informant expressed his hatred for sex offenders and the shame he felt about the entire episode. The community had ultimately done the right thing, with two separate tip-offs - one to journalists and one to police - ensuring the manhunt reached its conclusion.
