Jailing of Irish woman over planned Isis move ‘rubbish’

Noel Moore says his daughter Lorna did not know her husband was joining Islamic State

Lorna Moore has been jailed in England over plans to raise her children in Syria under the Islamic State. Photograph: West Midlands Police/PA Wire

The father of a Co Tyrone woman jailed in England over plans to raise her children in Syria under the Islamic State has claimed she was wrongly convicted.

The Muslim convert Lorna Moore (34), from Walsall in England, but originally from Omagh, was planning to bring her three children, including an 11-month-old baby, to Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria.

She was sentenced in London on Monday to two and a half years in prison after failing to tell the authorities her husband, Sajid Aslam (34) was joining the Islamic State in Syria.

On Tuesday her father, Noel Moore, from Mountjoy outside Omagh, said his daughter was unaware of her husband's intentions.

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“It was a miscarriage of justice, it couldn’t be anything else, my daughter didn’t know where the man was going,” Mr Moore told the BBC.

“I think the whole thing’s rubbish from start to finish. Somebody’s been accused of something they didn’t do and getting two and a half years in jail for it,” he added.

“She didn’t know that the man was going to go away. He didn’t come back home after a week of holidays,” said Mr Moore.

He said there was “no way” her daughter would bring her children to a war zone. “She thought too much of her youngsters to take them over there,” he said.

“How would you be feeling if it happened to your daughter. It’s a very difficult time, what else could it be,” added Mr Moore.

Judge Charles Wide in sentencing Moore said she was a "very strong character" and that she "knew perfectly well of your husband's dedication to terrorism".

Gerry Moriarty

Gerry Moriarty

Gerry Moriarty is the former Northern editor of The Irish Times