The Manchester synagogue attacker groomed a young woman and made her watch Isis terror videos, it has been revealed.
The woman, who was reportedly in a relationship with Jihad Al-Shamie, said she was ‘groomed into a controlling relationship’ with him.
After a tumultuous four-month relationship ended, she decided to leave the country. She claims that during their time together, he often expressed ‘extreme’ views and was abusive. Their relationship began after meeting on the Muslim dating app Muzmatch.
On one alarming occasion, Al-Shamie, 35, mentioned that he wanted to join the terrorist group Isis, which shocked her due to the radical nature of his beliefs, although she never thought he would actually follow through with them.
While pushing ‘extreme views’ on her, Al-Shamie would tell her to be ‘dedicated to the cause’.
She recalled, “He’d urge me to be ‘committed to the cause’ and would force me to watch videos with extreme content that I had no interest in. Even though I’m Muslim and eager to learn, these were ideas that I was taught to disagree with from a young age.
He’d often tell me that I was incorrectly taught about my faith. Essentially, he was attempting to indoctrinate me into his way of thinking,” she explained to the Manchester Evening News.
The woman also claimed she kept some messages from Al-Shamie, sent to her on banking app Revolut after she blocked him from contacting her.
One message from the attacker allegedly said: ‘We had a good year or so. I enjoyed destroying you hundreds of times. In your prime.’
Meanwhile, an NHS mental health carer is among those arrested by police over the attack that left two dead, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, who was shot dead minutes after he targeted Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester on Thursday
A woman, previously involved with Al-Shamie, claimed she was manipulated into a controlling relationship, where he coerced her into watching extremist material.
The woman, a 46-year-old white Brit, who must remain anonymous for legal reasons, was reportedly a recent convert to Islam according to her neighbors. She was among three men and three women detained by counter-terrorism officers after Al-Shamie committed a vehicle and knife assault near the Heaton Park Synagogue on Thursday.
Her home in Bolton was raided on Friday night by dozens of armed officers and uniformed police, with neighbours in the peaceful street reportedly hearing ‘screams and shouts’.
The woman is a peer support worker for an NHS hospital in Manchester. Such carers provide emotional support to those who are suffering from mental health traumas or illnesses.
An Asian neighbour who gave his name as Wajid, said: ‘I was doing such a course, and she told me she was a peer support worker herself. She said she travelled to Manchester for her shifts at a hospital.’
It is not known how she knows Al-Shamie, who lived 20 miles away in Prestwich. But one neighbour, who did not want to be named, said he saw Al-Shamie on the street a few months ago. Unemployed Al-Shamie, a British national of Syrian descent, was shot dead outside the synagogue.
Two men aged 30 and 32 and a 61-year-old woman were arrested at a house in Prestwich, Greater Manchester, hours after the attack. On Friday night, the 46-year-old woman was arrested at her house in the Farnworth area of Bolton, along with a 43-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman.
All six were arrested on charges of ‘suspicion of commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism.’
Kemi Badenoch was seen with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham (left) as the Conservative leader visited the scene on Saturday
On Saturday, Greater Manchester Police said that it obtained a warrant of further detention for the 46-year-old NHS worker and the three arrested on Thursday, who can now be detained for a further five days under terrorism powers.
Al-Shamie is believed to have been married to a British Pakistani woman in Manchester with whom he has a child, who is now two years old.
However, the couple are understood to be separated, with his wife living with her parents in the Burnage area of the city. This weekend, a family member of the woman came out of the house and told the MoS: ‘We are as distressed as anyone else about this. We do not want to talk, sorry.’
It has also emerged that Al-Shamie was under investigation for a recent rape claim against him. On Saturday, Greater Manchester Police refused to give more details, except confirming that the alleged victim was not a minor.
He has convictions for other offences, but was not known to counter-terrorism police or Prevent, the Government’s deradicalisation programme.
