Ralston Dodd, 25, was jailed in November after he admitted stabbing a man three times in the back following an argument on a north London street. An arrest warrant was issued after the court error was revealed — but Dodd has now gone into hiding. The attack, described as an "appalling act of violence" by police, left the victim fighting for his life and an extensive manhunt was launched to track Dodd down. Image caption Dodd was released from HMP Thameside 
 
 The Sun newspaper reported that after he was released he was spotted in a car by his victim. His father told the newspaper his son "could have died" in the attack. "I held my son and thought he was going to die. How can this happen without anyone noticing?," he said. He was arrested on 11 October and was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment at Blackfriars Crown Court on 11 November after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent. The Ministry of Justice said yesterday: “Releases in error are extremely rare­ but we take any case very seriously. "We are urgently investigating so we learn the lessons to prevent it happening again," she said. "Public protection is our priority."
– A man British police call "extremely dangerous" was accidentally released early from prison, possibly due to court staff mishearing his sentence, the Telegraph reports. Last September in London, 25-year-old Ralston Dodd stabbed a man three times in the back following an argument, nearly killing him. He was arrested three weeks after the attack following a manhunt and pleaded guilty in November. He was sentenced to nine years in prison. But it's possible court staff misheard the judge's "nine years" for "nine months," and now Dodd is the subject of a second manhunt, the Sun reports. According to the BBC, an arrest warrant has been issued for Dodd, who police say was guilty of an "appalling act of violence." "This is an unacceptable blunder by them," the 21-year-old victim's father tells the Sun. "How can this happen without anyone noticing?" A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, which is investigating the circumstances, says these kinds of mistakes are "extremely rare." (Woman granted clemency by President Obama is back in prison.)