Muslim convert teacher from the North guilty of terror offence

A Muslim convert accused of planning to take her three children to join their father in Syria has been found guilty of a terror offence.

Trainee teacher Lorna Moore, 33, originally from Northern Ireland, was one of a number of British Muslims accused of being intent on travelling to the war zone.

Following a trial at the Old Bailey, Moore was convicted of failing to tell authorities her supply teacher husband Sajid Aslam, 34, was poised to join Islamic State.

Her co-defendant, Ayman Shaukat, aged 27,was found guilty of helping Aslam and Muslim convert Alex Nash, 22, on their way to fight.

At the time of Aslam’s departure in August 2014, Moore had taken the rest of the family on a Butlins holiday in Skegness.

As Aslam crossed into Syria, he sent a triumphant coded message to Shaukat in the form of a video link to a song called ‘Made It’.

Within months, Moore had booked flights to Majorca, but her final destination was given away in a text from Nash’s wife in Turkey saying “see you there”.

But in evidence, Moore said she would “never” put her children’s lives in danger. She insisted she had been planning to take them back to her family’s farm in Omagh, after finishing her teacher training — a claim backed up by her mother.

Her relationship with Aslam ended after he became abusive and they only lived together for the sake of the children, the court heard. She told jurors that when she turned to a Muslim cleric for a divorce, he said she must take her husband back. She said Aslam should return to Britain and explain himself “if he is innocent and got nothing to hide”.