British Woman Who Left With Son To Syria Jailed For Six Years

Tareena Shakil fled to the war-torn region in October 2014 after telling her family she was going on holiday to Turkey. 

Tareena Shakil who took her toddler son to Syria jailed for six years for joining so-called Islamic State was found guilty of taking her toddler son to Syria to join terror group ISIS.

She was found guilty of terror offences at Birmingham Crown Court today, becoming the first British woman to be convicted after returning from the extremist heartland.

The court heard the 26-year-old, who used to live in Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire and adored watching The Only Way is Essex, posed her boy for pictures wearing an ISIS-branded balaclava before returning home claiming she’d ‘made a mistake’.

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

However, the jury did not believe her account after seeing tweets, messages and photographs, including images of the black flag of ISIS and passages calling on people to ‘take up arms’, and stating her wish to become a ‘martyr’.

She was found guilty of being a member of ISIS and encouraging acts of terror, becoming the first British woman to be convicted after return from the terror heartland.