Lisa Smith saw dead man on a cross with his eyes gouged out, court told

She accepted that there were "bad things happening" but she said "you would have to be a Muslim to understand"

Lisa Smith said: "It wasn't my problem, what these people do. I was there to build the Islamic State and that was it." Photo: Niall Carson/PA

Lisa Smith, a former Irish soldier who denies membership of Islamic State, saw a dead man hanging on a cross with his eyes gouged out while she was living in Syria, the Special Criminal Court has heard.

Ms Smith told gardaí that she thought it was "disgusting" but it didn't make her want to leave Syria at that time. She said: "It wasn't my problem, what these people do. I was there to build the Islamic State and that was it." She said other people were "doing things because they had a belief they were doing the right things" but she had nothing to do with that.