The Islamic State terrorist known as 'Beatle' Jihadi Ringo has said he wants to return to the UK with his secret wife and three children.
In an exclusive interview with the Mirror , Alexanda Kotey apologised for his crimes but said he is “grateful” for his time in IS.
The 35-year-old has said he has a Syrian wife and three girls, aged five, three and one, and wants them to live in Britain.
He is known as one of the Jihadi Beatles, something which he has previously denied.
The most well known was Jihadi John, who appeared as a hooded man in YouTube videos showing him beheading his victims.
Kotey said when he saw Jihadi John behead Westerners, he disapproved and said: “Is there no other way to deal with these people?”
Defence And Security Editor at the Mirror Chris Hughes writes: "These are weak words that Kotey knows would make no difference to the bloodthirsty executioner who had become a close friend.
When asked if he would have beheaded people, Kotey replied: “I can’t say to be honest… I can’t say I agree with it and I don’t know what I would do in that situation…
“Obviously if there was a gun put to my head, I definitely… I wouldn’t know… I would do.”
He added he and other IS fighters laughed at the Jihadi John videos.
Kotey said: “Nobody thought they were beneficial in any way.
“We used to mock them, we would ridicule them…We would laugh at the state, obviously not laughing at the beheadings, but this was all staged.”
I demanded to know why he was laughing at the production values, given the content was so horrific.
He replied, grinning: “I remember looking at beheading videos from Chechnya… this was playground stuff.”
He added he watched a video of the IS beheading of British worker Ken Bigley, who was murdered in Iraq in 2004. Kotey said: “I saw this in the UK. What it did – it replaced Hollywood.
“I guess this is entertainment, unfortunately. There’s a large portion of people who see it as entertainment.”
Read the full interview here.
