Tareena Shakil:’It wasn’t my intention to enter Syria’

The 26-year-old from Sparkbrook went to Syria in 2014 after telling her family she was going to Turkey on holiday.

She is the first British woman convicted of the offence after returning from the war-torn country.

During a two-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court, 26-year-old Shakil had denied the charges, claiming she only travelled to Syria because of a wish to live under the rule of sharia law.

Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale, who leads on counter-terrorism across the West Midlands, said: “Tareena Shakil had self-radicalised by viewing extremist material on the internet, before leaving the United Kingdom in October 2014”.

Other pictures found on her phone showed her posing with an AK-47 assault rifle and a hand gun. Another showed a rucksack with a Daesh logo and person holding a handgun.

Shakil, from Birmingham, claimed she had been groomed by Isis recruiters, who targeted her when she was low because of the break-up of her marriage in the UK.

Her defence said she was unhappy in Syria and she told the court: “I came back of my own free will. I came back because I realised I had made a mistake”.

In police interviews Tareena had told officers she was kidnapped into Syria from a Turkish beach. She insisted her every move was monitored by Isis minders and she had no choice but to send messages and pictures that were supportive of Isis.

During her trial she told the court of her experiences in the IS capital of Raqqa, and how after becoming disenchanted with life as an IS member, she escaped.

She had also stated her wish to become a “martyr”.

Shakil will be sentenced on Monday.

Tareena Shakil was arrested last February 2015 on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offenses and child neglect after arriving at Heathrow airport with her son on a flight from Turkey.