Parents accused of funding terrorism over son’s Syria trip

Teenager Jack Letts travelled to Syria in 2014 for a “grand adventure”, court hears

Jack Letts in a picture he posted on Facebook, near the Tabqa Dam in Syria. Facebook
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The parents of a teenager who travelled to join ISIS in Syria have gone on trial accused of funding terrorism after ignoring warnings and sending him hundreds of pounds, a court heard.

Jack Letts, a Muslim convert, left his home in Oxford in 2014 at the age of 18 to travel to the Middle East despite concerns that he had been radicalised at a local mosque.

His mother, Sally Lane, bought him a return flight to Jordan despite confiding to a friend that Jack had told her that he was going to fight in Syria, London’s Old Bailey was told.

When he missed his flight home, his father John Letts emailed his son to say: “It’s weird you so far away but hey, you are on a grand adventure.”

The Old Bailey court in London had heard that Mr Letts had received an email from a student in Kuwait before he headed to Syria warning of concerns about the company he was keeping there.

The pair are accused of trying to send him more than £1,700 in 2015-16 despite suspecting that he had joined ISIS.

The couple deny three counts of funding terrorism. The case continues.