Daniel Khalife's mother shares fears of his mental state

Farnaz Khalife says her son became more distant after he turned 18 and 'hardly called'

A court artist sketch of Daniel Khalife during his appearance at Westminster Magistrates' Court in central London, where he faced charges of escaping while a prisoner at HMP Wandsworth. PA

The mother of Daniel Khalife, who escaped from prison in the UK last week and has since been captured, has said her son “does not live in reality” and urged him to seek help in an interview with The Times.

After her son joined the army, 47-year-old Farnaz Khalife, a former nurse from Kingston, south-west London, moved to Wales for a quieter life.

The terrorist suspect who escaped from HMP Wandsworth prison attended Marshgate Primary School in North Sheen and Teddington School.

Ms Khalife said her son enjoyed watching TV programmes about the SAS as a child and always wanted to join the regiment.

She said her son, now aged 21, had become more distant after he turned 18 and “hardly called”.

Mr Khalife visited his mother once in Wales but only briefly came into the house.

His mother saw him for the last time at Christmas when she was on her way back to Teddington from visiting her daughter and spotted him at a bus stop.

“He was waiting with a suitcase for the 190 bus. I hugged him but he was embarrassed. I took a photo of him. I hadn’t seen him for a year,” she told The Times newspaper.

“He was really happy and he looked well. I didn’t think it would be a few days later till all this happened.

“All I got was a message through his solicitor, saying he was OK. I don’t think he has ever told anyone to check him for mental health problems.

“I am just worried about Dan, he’s always in my mind, I just want to help him.

“When he was arrested, he laughed and winked, that’s not normal. I feel helpless. This is not reality, it is a fantasy. He doesn’t think like a normal person," she said, according to the interview in The Times.

“I was just getting back to Teddington and I got off the bus and opened my phone. His name came up, I didn’t read the whole thing, I thought he must have killed himself. I was shaking, I had a panic attack and then I sat down and opened my phone and read the whole thing.”

Earlier on Monday, a court heard that Mr Khalife allegedly escaped from Wandsworth by strapping himself to the underside of food delivery lorry using material “which may have been from bed sheets”.

He was arrested on a canal towpath in West London at 10.40am on Saturday after being pulled off a bicycle by a plainclothes counter-terrorism officer.

Mr Khalife was remanded at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday and charged with escaping custody.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram was told the material he allegedly used to strap himself to the lorry was found underneath the vehicle by police, with clips at each end and marks which were consistent with someone having been there.

The court also heard that, when Mr Khalife was arrested, he had a bag containing cash and a mobile phone with him.

Police checked gardens, stopped and inspected cars, and asked residents for their IDs throughout Saturday morning following the alleged escape.

Before his alleged escape, Mr Khalife had been on remand at Wandsworth after being charged with terror offences in January.

He will appear at the Old Bailey on September 29.

Mr Khalife was brought up by his mother, who was born and raised in Iran.

“He was a very nice guy when he joined school aged 11. He was the class clown, one of the funniest in the year, but he went into his shell a bit,” a former schoolmate said.

The family lived in a cramped flat in Kingston, West London and both children attended Teddington School.

Mr Khalife was in the lower sets at school. He was described as a bit of a loner who would sit at the back of the classroom “swinging on his chair”.

He was described as “a bit lost and generally quite sweet”.

“He was not academically inclined but not intimidating either,” another former schoolmate said. “He was a spotty, lanky teenager who sat at the back of class and no one really spoke to, a lost soul.”

Mr Khalife gained a “handful” of GCSEs and then dropped out of school to join the army, where he was serving at Beacon Barracks in Staffordshire, the base for the 1st Signal Brigade.

His grandparents came to the UK from Iran in 1995. His grandmother was a primary schoolteacher in her home country and his grandfather, who died in 2020, was an accountant at Tehran University.

Mr Khalife's father is originally from Lebanon, but his mother's family did not approve of the match, and his maternal grandfather and uncle did not attend the wedding.

The couple broke up when Mr Khalife and his twin sister were young, and their grandmother began to help their mother, taking the children to school and cooking for them.