England: ‘radicalised’ schoolgirl removed from family

Mr Justice Anthony Hayden, sitting in London, said the 16-year old girl from east London was suffering psychological and emotional harm and could not continue living in a household full of violent Islamic terrorist propaganda.

The girl - who could be named only as ‘B’ - made a previous attempt to travel to Syria in order to become what Mr Justice Hayden called a “jihadi bride”.

Her parents appeared to co-operate with police and social workers to facilitate her return after her removal from a flight to Turkey in December 2014, but the court heard it later emerged they had successively deceived the authorities.

A subsequent search of the family’s home by counter-terrorism officers in June found electronic devices, some of which belonged to B’s father, containing Islamic State material including images of beheadings and bomb-making instructions.

Mr Justice Hayden ruled that B had to be removed from the family home for her psychological, emotional and intellectual protection.

He added that the potential harm contemplated for B was of the same magnitude as child abuse.

B and her family continue to be under police investigation on suspicion of possessing information likely to be useful to those who wanted to commit terrorist acts.