Alek, sadly took a long time with the items wrongly released (8)

I believe the answer is:

leakages

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'the items wrongly released' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'alek sadly took a long time' is the wordplay.
'sadly' is an anagram indicator.
'took' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a long time' becomes 'ages' (I've seen this before).
'alek' anagrammed gives 'leak'.
'leak'+'ages'='LEAKAGES'

'with' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for leakages that I've seen is " Gradual escapes".)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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