British group jailed for terror offences, plans to take children to live under ISIS

A British trio who planned to travel to Syria and join ISIS have been jailed for terrorism-related offences.

Lorna Moore, Ayman Shaukat and Alex Nash were all convicted on Monday at the Old Bailey in London.

ISIS has urged Muslims to travel to Syria and join their aim of creating a caliphate.Reuters

Moore, aged 34 and a mother of three, was jailed for two and a half years for failing to tell police her husband, Sajid Aslam, was about to join ISIS. Aslam was among a group of 12 from the Midlands town of Walsall who tried to go to Syria in 2014, according to police.

Shaukat, 28, was jailed for 10 years with a five-year extended licence for helping Aslam and one other, a Muslim convert named Alex Nash, to travel to Syria.

Nash, 22, was stopped in Turkey and was jailed for five years. He had plead guilty at an earlier hearing to preparing for acts of terrorism. 

It is believed Shaukat organised the operation and the judge ordered he must be monitored for 15 years because he was considered such a threat.

British-born Moore had converted to Islam and planned to take her three young children to Syria to raise them under ISIS, the Judge Charles Wide QC ruled. He said she "knew perfectly well of [her] husband's dedication to terrorism".

He added: "One of the troubling things about you is your facility for telling lies."

Another woman, Kerry Thomason, 24, was described by Wide as "naive" after she admitted planning to join her husband, Isaiah Siadatan, in Syria.

However her two-year prison sentence was suspended after it emerged Siadatan had threatened to send fighters to murder her parents.

Assistant chief constable Marcus Beale from the West Midlands counter-terrorism unit thanked local communities for their assistance in what is considered one of the force's most complex investigations.

He added: "In recent months we have seen the dangers of trained terrorists returning to Europe to commit acts of terrorism which emphasises how important it is for officers to prevent travel.

"If anyone is concerned that a friend or family member is thinking of travelling to Syria it is very important that they tell us as soon as possible. Police and other agencies can offer support to help safeguard those who are vulnerable to radicalisers."