A British-Nigerian man, Ifedayo Adeyeye, who was serving a jail term in the United Kingdom for abducting his son, has fled the country after being mistakenly released from prison.
At the resumption of hearing on Monday, the court was told that HMP Pentonville failed to notify police of the accidental release, giving Adeyeye a three-day head start before a manhunt was announced by Scotland Yard.
According to The Telegraph UK on Tuesday, a judge had earlier ruled that Adeyeye had abducted his son from his mother in France and taken him to Nigeria via the UK. After failing to return the child as ordered, Adeyeye was jailed for six months for contempt of court and later handed an additional 12-month sentence for again failing to facilitate the child’s return.
He was reportedly mistakenly released the following day after details of the new prison sentence were not passed to the officers responsible for authorising his release.
At Monday’s hearing, the court was told Adeyeye might have fled to Spain shortly after his release and is believed to have left the UK on April 22.
The Metropolitan Police told the court that they recognise the seriousness of the matter and how traumatic the situation must be for both the mother and her son, and that they are using all powers at their disposal to locate and arrest Adeyeye diligently.
The case is part of a wider pattern of prison errors, with Ministry of Justice data showing 179 inmates were mistakenly released between April 2025 and March 2026. A similar incident involving a convict of Nigerian origin occurred in November last year when a man serving a 21-year sentence for kidnapping reportedly walked out of a prison facility.
