Pharmacist who tried to brainwash school boys jailed

Zameer Ghumra from Leicester was today jailed for six years for trying to radicalise two young boys by showing them extremist videos published by ISIS

A pharmacist who showed a primary school child horrific videos of ISIS beheadings and told him and his brother to kill people who spoke out against Islam has been jailed for six years.

Zameer Ghumra ‘brainwashed’ the boys, teaching them to fight with butter knives and Nerf guns.

The 38-year-old pharmacist rewarded them with sweets to keep them onside and urged the youngsters to join the Islamic terror group – who he described as ‘not bad people’.

When asked by one child how anyone could do something so ‘disgusting’ as behead a helpless captive, Ghumra replied: ‘If you truly believe in Allah, you can do it.’

He was arrested in November 2015 while attempting to fly to Turkey, and charged with disseminating terrorist propaganda in the form of a graphic Twitter video between January 2013 and September 2014.

Ghumra, who had worked as a pharmacist for 11 years, denied the allegation – but was found guilty by a jury at Nottingham Crown Court following an eight-day trial.

Judge Gregory Dickinson QC, sentencing, told him today: ‘This was a terrible thing to do.

‘What makes this case particularly serious is the reason why the defendant showed to the child those dreadful scenes. It was part of a determined effort to indoctrinate and to radicalise the child and to turn this small boy into a terrorist.

‘This is a most shocking crime. It has damaged these children.’

The judge added Ghumra hadn’t shown any remorse, and said there was evidence he ‘still clings to some of his extreme views’.

The court heard the boys’ mother believed one had suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and had nightmares about being killed by a sniper.

Zameer Ghumra, 38, (pictured) 'brainwashed' two primary school-age youngsters, instructing them to not have non-Muslim friends and showed them ISIS beheading videos 

Zameer Ghumra, 38, (pictured) ‘brainwashed’ two primary school-age youngsters, instructing them to not have non-Muslim friends and showed them ISIS beheading videos 

Ghumra, pictured, also banned a poppy seller from the pharmacy he had managed 

Ghumra, pictured, also banned a poppy seller from the pharmacy he had managed 

Jurors heard how Ghumra followed a number of ISIS-linked social media accounts and made the boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, do the same. He produced a sick ‘business card’ for one which described him as a ‘Palestine Army General’ and showed an image of an assault rifle.

Ghumra worked as a pharmacist in Oundle, Northamptonshire, but the court was told he was setting up a madrasa, an Islamic religious school, in his home town of Leicester.

He also claimed he had online conversations with jailed hate preacher Anjem Choudary, describing him as ‘a good man’ to the children.

And he told a customer in his pharmacy that ISIS fighters were ‘not bad people’ – adding: ‘They’re only defending themselves.’

Ghumra went on to tweet that ‘Hitler was on the right track. They shouldn’t have stopped him’, and how Buckingham Palace could become a ‘great mosque’ once ISIS took over Britain.

While giving evidence, one boy told the court: ‘He had Isis training videos and people being beheaded.

‘There was talking and then the American soldier was beheaded.

‘It made me feel disgusting. He said if you truly love Allah then you do it.

‘I told him I get a horrid feeling when I see this.’

Nottingham Crown Court heard Ghumra wanted to recruit the boys into joining ISIS 

Nottingham Crown Court heard Ghumra wanted to recruit the boys into joining ISIS 

The boy claimed he and his brother had been shown ‘a lot’ of beheading videos by Ghumra, adding: ‘He believes in a very, very, very extreme Islam. He believes if anyone’s non-Muslim and they say anything bad about Islam you kill them.

‘And you can’t make friends with any non-Muslim.

‘He was teaching us about knives. He was teaching us to thrown knives and how to punch and kick. He already knew somehow and he taught us.

‘We used to use butter knives. You have to hold it in a specific way and throw it in a specific way.’

The second boy told jurors how Ghumra had ‘brainwashed’ him.

It was part of a determined effort to indoctrinate and to radicalise the child and to turn this small boy into a terrorist 

Judge Gregory Dickinson 

He said: ‘He used to make us like him and get us into joining ISIS. Every time we started to stop liking him he used to buy us sweets or something to make us like him again. He used to keep on doing that.

‘He said that Isis are good and he used to get us Nerf guns and trying to teach us how to survive in a situation like Isis.

‘He said that if you don’t follow the rules of Islam you go to hell.

‘There was five or six pillars of Islam. You have to pray, you have to not drink alcohol and other stuff like that and other stuff he made up.’

Another witness told the court that Ghurma banned him from the pharmacy where he worked after he had urged him to have a poppy tin on display.

The witness said: ‘He said words to the effect of, ‘You’ve got blood on your hands’. He told me I was barred and to get out.

‘It wasn’t his pharmacy. He was just the manager.’

Prosecutor Simon Davis told jurors: ‘We say what the defendant was doing, saying and telling the children to do, amounted to indoctrination, radicalisation, or whatever word you want to use, at an early age.

‘He showed them Islamic State training videos, that included how to behead somebody.

‘It was apparent the defendant had been brainwashing the children to the extent that anything non-Muslim was haram (forbidden).’

Ghumra denied the claims against him, telling the court: ‘I realised ISIS was starting to make their own violence. As soon as I realised that I parted ways.

‘I was anti-violence then and I’m anti-violence now.’

But he was found guilty by jurors after just two hours’ deliberation.

Speaking after Ghumra was convicted, Sue Hemming, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘The CPS case was that he intended to radicalise them in the hope that they would go on to be involved in terrorism.

‘The children were brave to give evidence and we would like to thank them for helping to secure this conviction of a dangerous man.’ 

Sue Hemming of the CPS said: ‘Zameer Ghumra tried to brainwash impressionable children with this violent ideology by making one watch beheading videos and urging them both to adopt a hard-line religious outlook.

‘The CPS case was that he intended to radicalise them in the hope that they would go on to be involved in terrorism.

‘The children were brave to give evidence and we would like to thank them for helping to secure this conviction of a dangerous man.’

During the investigation, his computer contained more than 1,600 internet search entries for entries such as survival, bush craft and survival knives.

Ghumra also taught the children how to survive a bomb attack while warning them on their arrival in Syria, they would have to behead people. 

Detective Chief Superintendent Martin Snowden, the head of counter-terrorism policing in the North East, said Ghumra’s offending was ‘significant’.

He said: ‘Zameer Ghumra willingly abused a position of trust, showing young children a violent and explicit beheading video with no regard for the profound effect the disturbing material may have on them. That act alone is unforgivable.

‘He also used social media accounts to follow terrorist content online and to advertise his teaching services. His teaching role increases his risk, potentially giving him direct access to young or vulnerable people who may look up to him as an authority figure.

‘Terrorist publications and propaganda seek to encourage support for terrorism and the implications of sharing or disseminating them are extremely serious.’

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk