Ifedayo Adeyeye may have fled UK after prison release error

Ifedayo Adeyeye prison release error keeps a child abduction case in focus as police launch search after the London blunder.

British-Nigerian man Ifedayo Adeyeye is being sought by police after a mistaken release from HMP Pentonville in London while serving time for abducting his son, Laurys Adeyeye. Court records show he was freed on 21 April 2026, just one day after receiving a new 12-month sentence for contempt of court.

The High Court said prison staff failed to flag the new warrant before his release, and police were not told until the afternoon of 24 April. Mr Justice Hayden said the delay showed an alarming lack of urgency and said the boy’s chance of being reunited with his mother had been damaged by the error.

Adeyeye had earlier been jailed for six months in January 2026 after failing to return Laurys to his mother, Claire N’Djosse, following the child’s abduction from France in 2024 and transfer to Nigeria via the UK. Police now believe he may have left the UK on 22 April and may have travelled to Spain.

The case has also drawn attention to wider prison failures. Official Ministry of Justice data show 179 prisoners were released in error in England and Wales between April 2025 and March 2026.