‘Jihadi Jack’ claims he has ‘no intention of blowing up British people’ if he returns to UK

Isis suspect says he feels guilty over parents' conviction for funding terrorism

Conrad Duncan
Sunday 23 June 2019 18:24 BST
Jihadi Jack' says he has no intention of blowing up British people

The British terror suspect known as “Jihadi Jack” has said he has “no intention of blowing up British people” if he returns to the UK after his parents were found guilty of funding terrorism on Friday.

Jack Letts said he was desperate to be reunited with his parents, who he has not seen since he travelled to Syria in 2014 to join Isis, and insisted that Britons are “my people”.

Mr Letts’ parents were convicted at the Old Bailey of sending him money while he was in Syria, despite repeated warnings that their son had joined Islamic State.

The Muslim convert, who left the UK as a teenager, told Sky News: “I feel guilty for what I’ve put them through.”

Mr Letts is currently being held by Kurdish authorities in a prison in northern Syria over the accusation that he was a member of Islamic State.

His mother, Sally Lane, has said her life is “in ruins” after she and her husband, John Letts, were given suspended sentences for funding terrorism earlier this month.

The Old Bailey heard how the couple sent – or tried to send – a total of £1,723 to their son despite being warned by police not to.

They were found guilty of one terror funding charge relating to September 2015, but cleared of a similar offence from December 2015.

A third charge relating to an attempt to send money in January 2016 was ordered to lie on file after jurors could not agree.

In a statement following their trial, the parents said they did “what any parent would do if they thought that their child’s life was in danger”.

Jack Letts has said the conviction did make sense to him.

"It's two 60-year-old atheists being convicted for Islamic terrorism, it doesn't really make much sense,” he added.

He claimed his parents had sent him money so he could leave Syria and he had used some of it to buy “glasses and maybe falafel”.

Mr Letts had admitted he was once prepared to carry out a suicide attack and realised he had been “an enemy of Britain”.

"I used to want to at one point, believe it or not. Not a vest. I wanted to do it in a car. I said if there's a chance, I will do it,” he told the BBC.

He added that he had made “a big mistake” and did not expect members of the British public to forgive him.

Additional reporting by PA

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