Shamima Begum should be able to return to UK, says glamour model Kimberley Miners who was groomed by ISIS recruiters

Sophie Williams15 February 2019

A British woman groomed by ISIS says teenager Shamima Begum should be allowed to return to the UK.

Appearing on This Morning, Kimberley Miners, a former glamour model, said “she needs to realise what’s happened and what she has done but she’s still somebody’s child.”

Ms Begum, 19, told a reporter inside a refugee camp in Syria that she would like to return to the UK as she is nine months pregnant.

Her comments have divided opinions on whether she should be allowed to return.

Shamima Begum was located in a refugee camp in Syria earlier this week
EPA

Ms Miners who was groomed by ISIS recruiters to become the next White Widow Sally Jones said that the teenager is not apologetic because “she’s still very young.”

She added: “Coming from that experience, being in that situation myself and I was an adult when I was groomed, it took me a good two years to realise what was going on and how it affected me and how I was brainwashed.

“Under the right deradicalisation courses I think she could return.”

Ms Miners said British born Islamic State militant Naweed Hussain contacted her on Facebook after she began sharing videos showing the plight of children affected by the Syrian war.,

(L-R) Kadiza Sultana, 16, Shamima Begum, 15 and Amira Abase, 15 going through security at Gatwick airport at the time they first fled to Syria to join ISIS

He contacted the former page three model every day and shared propaganda including dozens of images and videos and even a bomb making manual.

“I lost a baby and was going through a really bad time and I was so close to going. I’m so glad I didn’t,” she said.

“I was at such a low point that when you’re in that situation, you don’t know what you’re doing. So like I say it’s taken me two years to realise and I still don’t quite understand what happened.”

She said that she “started to believe” the propaganda and “go against” what she had been brought up to believe.

Mr Hussain convinced Ms Miners to change her name to Aisha Lauren al-Britaniya and she struck up friendships with women already living in Syria.

The 29-year-old burst into tears when discussing how she was groomed by ISIS
This Morning

15-year-old Amira Abase who travelled to Syria from London with Shamima and another teenager were among Ms Miners’ Facebook friends.

Ms Miners was arrested in October 2016 after dropping out of a course aimed at stopping her online behaviour.

She said that her parents were “shocked” upon hearing their daughter had been radicalised.

“They feel partly to blame because obviously they didn’t realise what was going on and I feel so ashamed of myself for doing that to them, to my whole family because they’ve had abuse and the trouble that came with it.”

Despite facing 10 years in prison, she was released with no further action in March 2017 after 17 months on bail, North East Counter Terrorism Police confirmed.

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