Walsall terror network: Pair in plot to smuggle unborn babies into Syria have appeals thrown out

Ayman Shaukat, the ringleader of Islam Walsall, was jailed for 10 years in May having been found guilty of assisting friends to travel to Syria to engage in terrorism.

And teacher Lorna Moore was sentenced to two and a half years after being found guilty of failing to tell security services that her husband, Sajid Aslam, was intending to travel to Syria and join ISIS.

Islam Walsall has seen at least five members join the ISIS, also known by its Arabic language acronym Daesh.

Both Shaukat, aged 28, and Moore, 34, appealed to the Court of Appeal arguing their sentences were excessive.

But in a ruling made by the head of the judiciary in England and Wales, the pair's appeals were refused.

Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, said there was ample evidence to show that Shaukat, of Pargeter Street, Walsall, was committed to violent jihad and extremism.

He said: "The sentencing judge had the benefit of hearing the evidence at the trial and was entitled to infer that Shaukat was at the centre of the activities of Islam Walsall that supported the activities of IS.

"There was, in our judgment, more than sufficient evidence before the judge on which he was entitled to conclude that Shaukat was dangerous."

Moore, of Glebe Street, Walsall, claimed she thought her husband was innocently teaching English in a Turkish refugee camp.

But Lord Thomas said she had been found to know 'perfectly well' about her husband's dedication to violent jihad.

He added: "The information she had was significant, bearing in mind the finding that her husband was, to her knowledge, going to Syria to fight for IS.

"The sentence passed fully took into account her previous good character."

Shaukat's three-week trial earlier this year shed light on the murky goings-on within Islam Walsall.

The plot dreamt up in Walsall during 2014 planned to smuggle at least four pregnant women and four young children into the Islamic State.

Also convicted this year was Alex Nash, 22, of Bentley Road, Walsall, who is serving five years behind bars, plus an additional year on licence, after pleading guilty to trying to join ISIS with his pregnant wife Yousma Jan, then 20.

He was intercepted in Turkey, close to the Syrian border and deported back to the UK.

Mother-of-three Kerry Thomason, whose address cannot be disclosed for legal reasons, was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to assisting her husband Isaiah Siadatan to prepare for acts of terrorism.

She also attempted to travel to Syria while pregnant with her youngest child.

Convicted burglar Shaukat, the cell's fixer, separately drove both Aslam, and Nash and his pregnant wife to Stansted and Birmingham airports.

He also arranged Nash and Jan's affairs while they were abroad, including emptying their flat.

He was treasurer and later vice-chairman of Islam Walsall which had a meeting house dubbed the Walsall Islamic Centre in Bradford Lane.

The group was sympathetic to ISIS, had stalls at Walsall Market, and once hosted a Christmas Day conference with cronies of the hook-handed radical cleric Abu Hamza, who was jailed last year for multiple charges, including hostage-taking and plotting to set up a terrorism training camp in the US.

Shaukat, who worked in Essington, Walsall and Smethwick, was nicknamed the Caldmore Chameleon by counter terrorism police for his ability to repeatedly change his story.

He communicated with Aslam via 'code' using mobile phone apps.

Moore was a trainee maths teacher and also taught at the Islamic school connected to Wolverhampton's main mosque.

Her trial heard she also intended to travel to the Islamic State with her children. She had sought passports for her children and booked flights for Majorca, which the prosecution alleged was part of her planning for a journey to Syria.

The group was smashed after Jacob Petty, 26, the son of a Church of England vicar Sue Boyce, confessed via email he was in Syria to become a 'soldier' of the Islamic State.

He met up with Aslam who had travelled to Syria in 2014 and was later killed in fighting.

Aslam has sent emails to the Express & Star claiming to be a teacher in Turkey and demanded his wife be set free.

At least two others associated with the Islam Walsall group – including a pregnant woman – have made it to Syria.