Manchester synagogue attacker Jihad Al-Shamie “groomed” a young woman and forced her to watch extremist videos, it has been claimed.
Al-Shamie, 35, was shot dead by armed police on Thursday, October 2, after launching a knife attack outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall, Greater Manchester, which claimed the lives of two men.
The woman told Manchester Evening News she was an 18-year-old college student when she was groomed into a "controlling relationship" with Al-Shamie, which lasted around four months.
She revealed she met the terror attacker on a Muslim dating app called Muzmatch and that he claimed to be just 24, despite being in his mid-thirties.
She said he hid details of his family life and insisted on meeting at a local Premier Inn. He also reportedly hit her more than once.
During the on-off relationship, she said Al-Shamie told her she should be "dedicated to the cause" and horrified her by suggesting he would join ISIS. The woman has since left the country.
She said: "He used to say, 'I want you to be dedicated to the cause', and he used to sit there and make me watch videos – like extreme videos – that I had no interest in. I am Muslim and of course I love to learn more. But this stuff was things that I have been raised to not agree with.
"He used to always say I was taught the wrong way and I wasn't taught right. He was basically just trying to groom me into what he thought."
Elsewhere, she said: “He wanted me to cover myself, full niqab, everything. He was proper pressuring me for marriage - and I didn't want to marry him. This was after one month and he was like 'come to my house', and he was very forceful - extremely, really.”
It is understood Al-Shamie had been married to a British Pakistani woman and lived with her in Manchester before separating. The couple had a child, who is now two years old.
The wife is said to be living with her parents in a suburb of Manchester. The Mail on Sunday reports that a woman at the address told reporters over the weekend: "We are as distressed as anyone else about this. We do not want to talk, sorry."
It has known that Al-Shamie was being investigated over a recent rape allegation, with Greater Manchester Police revealing no further details beyond that that the complainant was not a minor.
Greater Manchester Police said it has been granted custody extensions to hold four people arrested in connection with the attack on the Crumpsall synagogue for a further five days.
“We have been granted warrants of further detention for four individuals currently in custody. This means they can remain in custody for up to a further five days,” a statement said.
They are a 30-year-old man, a 61-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man, all arrested in Prestwich, and a 46-year-old woman arrested in Farnworth.
The force said an 18-year-old woman and a 43-year-old man, who were arrested in Farnworth, remain in custody for questioning.
Everyone in custody has been arrested on suspicion of commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism.
The Mail on Sunday reports that the 46-year-old is a white British woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, who is an NHS mental health worker at a hospital in Manchester.
Neighbours describe her as a recent convert to Islam and said they heard "screams and shouts" as her home in Farnworth, Bolton, was raided by dozens of armed officers and uniformed police on Friday night.
It is unknown what connections, if any, she had with Al-Shamie, who lived 20 miles away in Prestwich.
