A twenty-six year-old British mother who took her toddler son to Syria has been jailed for six years for belonging to the jihadist group ISIL.

Tareena Shakil who is a former health worker from Birmingham in central England, is the first woman from the UK to return from the self-declared caliphate, to be convicted of the offence.

Shakil has denied joining ISIL saying she only wanted to live under Sharia law, but the court was shown photos of her posing in Syria under an ISIL flag. She’s also been convicted of encouraging acts of terrorism via social media.

“Tareena Shakil had self-radicalised by viewing extremist material on the internet, before leaving the UK,” said Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale.

“Our assessment is that she was not naïve. She had absolutely clear intentions when she left the UK, sending tweets encouraging the public to commit acts of terrorism here and then taking her young child to join Daesh (ISIL) in Syria.”

Photographs seized from her phone show